Camden Still Murder Capital of NJ

Millions of dollars have been pumped into Camden's economy to fuel the city's renaissance. But, despite this, Camden now has the dubious distinction of being the murder capital of New Jersey.

Camden officials expect light rail to be one of the things to pump money into the economy and give the city something to hope for.

Camden's reputation has appeared to be on the rise, with the aquarium, the battleship, the ball field and the Tweeter Center.

But the 80,000 people who live in the city can't seem to shake the city's past.

Last year, with 44 murders, Camden had the highest homicide rate in the state. That is a six-year high and a third more than the year before. In 2003, Gov. Jim McGreevey sent state police to Camden to help cut crime.

"Unfortunately, we don't find there's a statistical correlation between the number of police officers and the homicide rate," said Jim Lynch, the assistant Camden County prosecutor.

Lynch said that, ironically, the war on drugs may be one of the reasons for more murders.

"Police have closed down more than 50 of the city's 200 known drug corners. Reducing the number of drug corners sometimes has a negative effect on the homicide rate, because that causes the remaining drug dealers to be more competitive with each other. A bit of a turf war," Lynch warned.

However, the prosecutor pointed proudly to what is called the clearance rate. While the crime rate is up, the numbers of crimes and murders solved is also up. In Camden, the clearance rate is 85 percent.

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