Civilian caravans cruising rough Newark, NJ, neighborhoods in a ...

by Victor Epstein

NEWARK, N.J. — Concerned citizens and government workers in New Jersey’s largest city are taking to the streets in an effort to reduce crime.

Under Newark’s “Crime Caravan” program, volunteer convoys have been rolling through the city’s roughest neighborhoods a few nights each week since Sept. 29. More than 120 volunteers in 45 vehicles hit the streets Monday, breaking off into five groups, called “packs.” Each pack was led by an off-duty police officer in an unmarked car with flashing emergency lights.

It’s about “waving the flag” and emphasizing that Newark is a city of laws again, according to Mayor Cory Booker, who initiated the trial program to damp crime this fall. Critics say the patrols are a political ploy by the mayor and could endanger the civilians who participate.

“The caravan gives people a sense of strength and security,” said Booker, who is trying to fashion a national blueprint for renewal in a former icon for inner-city decay. “They let criminals know we’re taking the city back.”

The cash-strapped city pays nothing for the program, and supporters say it channels community angst about violence into a force multiplier for police. The packs look a lot like the multi-vehicle police impact teams — known to locals as “trains” — that are filled with heavily armed officers. Civilian volunteers aren’t allowed out of the vehicles, most of which are white vans paid for with charitable donations.

The program also helps Booker politically by harnessing the same popular angst over community violence as his opponents, who have been holding anti-violence protest rallies in key city intersections.

John Sharpe James — son of former Mayor Sharpe James — is part of that movement. The former U.S. Army major views the caravan program as strictly a political ploy.

“I see no effect” from them on street violence, James said.

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