Camden officers struggle with their jobs, their feelings on new county force

Until Thursday's deadline to apply to a new county police force, one veteran Camden officer struggled with being practical or principled.

He opposes the new force, which would replace the 141-year-old city department, yet he has a family, including four young children, to feed. If his fellow union members had approved the proposed contract terms, he had planned to apply. But his wife ultimately disagreed.

"She said, 'You shouldn't put [the application] in. . . . Stand up for what's right,'" the officer, who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Friday.

A day after members of Camden's Fraternal Order of Police lodge overwhelmingly rejected the county's final terms for considering hiring them all rather than fewer than half, officers expressed both dismay and delight at the 142-62 vote.

"Everyone believes this is wrong and, instead of just taking it, we are willing to fight it at all costs," the father of four said.

County officials said 156 city officers had applied for the new force by Thursday's deadline, far exceeding the vote against the proposal.

"It makes absolutely no sense. How do you vote no and apply at the same time?" said another veteran officer, a father of two, who voted in favor of the terms Thursday and applied in December. "They wanted to play both sides of the fence."

That officer, who also asked that his name not be used, added: "Your mortgage company, your credit cards, your hungry kids at home, they don't want to hear about principle."

The new force's metro division, which is to patrol only Camden, is projected to have 400 officers, making it larger than the current force.

Thursday was an emotionally charged day. The father of four accused superior officers, who were not allowed to vote, of hovering near the union hall to intimidate officers.

The father of two said he had received text messages from officers up until midnight, such as one that said: "We won. You lost."

Hiring more than 49 percent of the nearly 260-member force would trigger the terms of more generous contracts the county seeks to shed, officials said.

Officers, who will be laid off by April, had expressed dismay that the terms did not include an ironclad offer to hire all of them.

The father of four said he hoped the rank-and-file's plan to fight the force in court is successful.

"I have no Plan B," he said. "I'm hoping for the best. Otherwise, a lot of us are going to get laid off."