RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Elizabeth Fielder of member station WHYY reports.
ELIZABETH FIEDLER: Standing in front of the Camden Laundromat he's owned for about 30 years, Carmelo Villegas points to a boarded-up house across the street. It's a drug haven, he says. Villegas says life here will be more dangerous after the layoffs.
MONTAGNE: It's like giving a license to these crooks to come in and try to take over.
FIEDLER: Villegas steps inside the laundromat, where it's warmer. He tells a harrowing story of being shot at by robbers. He says with the city and state strapped for cash, the federal government should step in.
MONTAGNE: We've been having a lot of wars in here, the United States. That's billions and billions of dollars they're spending. Why they don't spend it here in the country, defending our own people here? You know?
FIEDLER: There is at least one similarity between the long-time laundromat owner and Camden Police Chief John Scott Thomson: They're both dedicated to this city.
C: I've spent the last 17 years of my life putting it on the line in this city. Many people I know and love reside in this city, work in this city. I'm married to this city.
FIEDLER: As Camden's police chief, Thomson's in charge of preventing the sort of pandemonium many residents predict.
C: It appears on the layoffs, we will lose 163 officers on January 18th, which is approximately 45 percent of the police department. We are pushing the officers that we have remaining down and out into the field. When it's all said and done, the game plan that we are moving forward with, we will have 92 percent of the organization in the field. Post-layoff, our streets numbers will be three-and-a-half percent less than what they currently are today.
FIEDLER: The president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Camden, John Williamson, has his doubts.
MONTAGNE: You cannot cover the same amount of ground at the same amount of time with less. You may be able to cover the same amount of ground, but just by the sheer reduction in numbers, the time responses are definitely going to be longer. And if you've been the victim of a crime, you know, exactly how much of a delay is OK?
FIEDLER: Camden Mayor Dana Redd says with less money from the state of New Jersey, the city faces a $26.5 million budget gap, and she had little choice but to push forward with the layoffs. But she's still hoping some jobs can be saved.
MONTAGNE: If we receive meaningful concessions from police and fire, it certainly will lessen the number of layoffs.
FIEDLER: Twenty-five-year-old William Johnson has been a Camden firefighter for almost five years. He served in Iraq as a Marine and says if he's laid off, he'll dedicate himself to the Marines and may re-enlist. Sitting in his parents' modest East Camden home where he grew up, Johnson says it's going be dangerous for the firefighters who are left.
MONTAGNE: A lot more fires that's going to get started, or happen in abandoned places that we were trained to protect. So for whoever's left in the city working, it's going to be very, very dangerous for them.
FIELDER: Johnson's father, William Johnson, Sr. says even if the city gets more dangerous after the layoffs, he's not planning to leave.
MONTAGNE: I'm the block captain out here. You know, we've been trying to keep this section nice and free from a whole bunch of stuff happening to this part of the city.
FIEDLER: For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Fiedler.
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