Christie Administration, City of Camden and Camden County Mark Significant Milestone in Promoting Effective, Efficient Public Safety with Regionalization Memorandum of Understanding

Press Release

Governor Chris Christie today welcomed progress made among the City of Camden, Camden County and the State's Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to further the goal of regionalizing police services in the county. The MOU, reached after months of work between the Christie Administration, Camden County and the City of Camden, signals real progress in a cooperative effort to adopt a new model to more efficiently and effectively keep communities and families safe.

"Today marks a critically important milestone on the path to making regionalization of police services a reality and innovating the way government works in order to fulfill our number one priority as elected leaders -- keeping communities and families safe. I have no doubt that the work being done today in the City of Camden and Camden County will serve as a model for the rest of the state in how to more effectively protect the public," said Governor Christie.

"I want to thank Mayor Dana Redd, Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli, and the many local elected officials for the time and energy devoted to this effort, and for having the courage to take on this challenge in a candid and unafraid manner that will truly modernize law enforcement in order to best meet the public safety needs of today. By putting the people they serve first, Camden will show that local governments can lead through difficult economic times and work together to ensure our residents are safe," concluded Governor Christie.

The MOU furthers the common goal of assisting financially distressed municipalities that continue to deal with difficult budgetary pressures, increasing costs and tough choices by providing an avenue for cost savings, while maintaining a high level of public safety and confidence. Regionalization of services is intended to combine and maximize the deployment of public safety resources by eliminating overlap and duplication while reducing costs.

Participation will be open to every municipality in the county on a voluntary basis.

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