Trenton has seen 24 homicides so far this year, with 12 since Sept. 1, and a police department reduced by layoffs has struggled to maintain order in the city.
A New Jersey State Police car sits on Spring Street near the intersection with Calhoun Street following a shooting in Trenton yesterday.
TRENTON — The State Police may soon have a heightened presence in the violence-weary capital city, as state law enforcement officials and city police say they are working to beef up enforcement.
Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. met Monday with Attorney General Jeff Chiesa and Col. Rick Fuentes, the superintendent of the State Police, to discuss the plan, a spokesman for Chiesa said.
“A plan is being formulated,” spokesman Paul Loriquet said. “And we plan to provide additional State Police resources in the city in the near future.”
Loriquet would not say what form that State Police assistance would take, but said it would be “independent” of troopers who have been operating as part of a manpower deployment in Trenton since October.
Trenton has seen 24 homicides so far this year, with 12 since Sept. 1, and a police department reduced by layoffs has struggled to maintain order in the city.
Last Thursday, Mayor Tony Mack sent a letter to Gov. Chris Christie requesting the permanent stationing of a detachment of troopers in the capital city to assist the Trenton police. Loriquet would not say whether that idea was part of the working version of the plan.
Mack also asked Christie for additional money to hire back 65 to 70 Trenton police officers. The department’s numbers still have not recovered from 105 layoffs in Sept. 2011, and many of the officers brought back to work since then are filling vacancies left by retirements on the force.
Starting in October of this year, troopers in tactical units arrived in Trenton to help out, often assisting a task force of city police and county law enforcement.
The extra manpower was aimed at decreasing violent crime by patrolling and making arrests in designated hot spots throughout the city.
Briefly interrupted by Hurricane Sandy and the need for troopers at the Jersey Shore, the State Police involvement in Trenton continued into November.
City resident Minister Lee Ingram has said he witnessed five troop cars riding into Trenton the night of Nov. 30. Lt. Steve Jones, a state police spokesman, confirmed troopers were operating in various parts of the city that weekend.
“That was a previously authorized deployment by troopers to Trenton,” Jones said yesterday.
Typically sending what’s known as a “Tac Pack” for its usual role in tactical police work, officials have said the manpower increase of troopers is meant to tamp down violent crime.
Shortly after the month of December 2011 saw six murders, and violence continued into 2012, Gov. Chris Christie ordered a six-week “surge” into Trenton during February and March that led to over 100 arrests. Rivera requested that the State Police return in late September after another increase in murders, and an effort similar to the one begun in October this year. No statistics have been released for that deployment.
A city police spokesman said he could not comment on any talks with the State Police. Rivera could not be reached for comment late yesterday.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.