Last week, we reported some tremendous news. Kearny’s overall crime, as reported by the FBI in the annual Uniform Crime Report, dropped a whopping 27.5% in 2020 over numbers in 2019 that were, themselves, a part of another drop.
It’s all part of a trend that started four-plus years ago under retired Chief John P. Dowie and that has continued with Chief George King and Deputy Chief Scott Macfie. (King had been deputy chief when the numbers began to sharply drop.)
The numbers dropped, again, in the middle of a global pandemic, but the trends reveal it wasn’t the pandemic that made the numbers so strong. In fact, in one recent year, the drop was 36%, so despite the great numbers, they’re not even the biggest decrease in recent memory.
They’ve dropped because the department is proactive and not reactive.
They’ve dropped because the department has many young officers who go above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis.
They’ve dropped because technology has become an integral part of policing.
They’ve dropped because each year, when there are retirements, replacements are made to ensure the department is properly staffed.
And they’ve dropped because of the leadership of King and Macfie, who have served the Town of Kearny in as exemplary a manner as is possible to dream of.
This has all happened in a country that hasn’t exactly been wild about law enforcement, especially over the last 13 months.
When things got rough nationally, the police here didn’t retreat. Instead, they were out there, risking their lives, in a visible a manner as one could imagine.
While sandwiched between two major urban metropolises — Jersey City and Newark — things have drastically improved. This, alone, is remarkable, on top of all the other factors.
Kearny has always been a great place to live and work, but it’s never been clearer. We are all fortunate this is a reality. And because of King, Macfie and countless others, we all rest our heads each night knowing we do so in a very safe place to live.
Can’t ask for much more than that.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.