Immediate Public Safety Plan to Address Violent Crime Wave
An extension of his public safety plan announced in October, Shavar's 5-point Immediate Public Safety Plan calls for:
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Youth Development and Gang Prevention
- Increase opportunities for at-risk youth in proven gang prevention and youth development programs.
- Add at least 1000 after-school slots for children at risk, and at least 200 slots in proven gang-prevention programs for highest risk, gang-involved youth with history of prior crimes.
- Increase opportunities for at-risk youth in proven gang prevention and youth development programs.
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Non-Violent Offender Diversion
- Divert non-violent offenders to community-based programs.
- Use resources under the Affordable Care Act to provide more addiction and mental-health services for youth and adults at risk. This prevents crime by addressing the needs of addicts and those with mental health challenges, and frees scarce criminal justice resources for violent offenders.
- Divert non-violent offenders to community-based programs.
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Launch Real-Time, Intelligence-Based Crime Control Center
- Build and operate real-time crime-control data center to drive intelligence-based preventive policing.
- Use forecasting models and analytics to more accurately identify potential criminal activity and more effectively deploy police resources.
- Build and operate real-time crime-control data center to drive intelligence-based preventive policing.
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Hire 75 Police Officers
- Hire 75 police officers and deploy them for proactive, intelligence-based community policing in high-crime areas.
- Create Violent Crimes Task Force for targeted operations in tandem with crime-control center.
- Hire 75 police officers and deploy them for proactive, intelligence-based community policing in high-crime areas.
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Zero Tolerance for Gun-Related Crimes
- Pursue mandatory sentences for all illegal gun possession or trafficking in Newark.
- Pursue mandatory sentences for all crimes involving illegal gun use, including aggravated assaults, armed robberies and homicides.
- Pursue mandatory sentences for all illegal gun possession or trafficking in Newark.
All of these initiatives can be paid for either with existing resources or through modest reallocation of current expenditures.
Crime and Public Safety
2013 ended with a total of 111 murders in Newark, with the South Ward being the most violent ward in the city. Since 2010 crime is up 70% in the ward. Not coincidentally, the layoff of over 170 police officers also occurred under his watch.
As the third highest ranking in the Attorney General’s office, Shavar served as an integral leader in the design and implementation of the statewide crime plan that reduced crime three years in a row.
Shavar has a comprehensive public safety strategy. The Jeffries Plan for Safe Streets and Neighborhoods is filled with bold and innovative initiatives that have been proven to be effective and net results. This plan sets forth 22 key elements, and essential Policy initiatives to support implementation. Its focus primarily covers 3 major areas; Prevention, Enforcement and Re-Entry. Among the highlights of the areas are:
Prevention
- Pre-trial reform
- Expanded Pre-Offense Drug and Mental Health Treatment
- Child and Family Mentoring and Parent Coaching
- Expanded After-School and Summer Opportunities
- Pursuit of Innovative Pay for Success Models to Support Proven Programs While Reducing Taxpayer Risk for Failed Programs
- Coordinated, Streamlined, Transparent and Evidence Based Funding
Enforcement
- Targeted Focus on Crimes and Violence Prevented, Instead of Arrests Made, Search Warrants Executed, and Drugs Seized
- Relentless Focus on Those Individuals Most Responsible for Crime
- Creation of a Special Violent Crime Task Force to Target the City’s Most Violent Offenders
- Closing Open Air Drug Markets and Aggressive Pursuit of Illegal Guns
- Target Operations Focused on Street and Drug Gangs that Prey Upon Our Children
- Federal, State and Local Task Force on Gangs
- Launch of State-of-the-Art “Real-Time” Crime Prevention Data and Intelligence Center
Re-Entry
- Effective, Aggressive Interventions for Offenders on Probation for Drug Offences
- Expanded Vocational and Educational Programs, both Pre-and Post-Release, to provide Re-Entering Offenders with Job Training, Certification, and Job Placement
- Re-Establishing the One Stop Re-Entry Centers
- Intensive, Best-in-Class Customer Service and Case Management through the City One Stop
- Expanding Parent Programs Focused on the Reunification Challenges Posed by Incarceration
- Effective Juvenile Re-Entry
- Legal Support for Barriers Affecting Re-Entry
Where Shavar Stands on Education
Read the Jeffries Plan for Education
- Shavar does not support the closing of any public schools this year, and maintains that this should only be done as a last resort option.
- Shavar wholeheartedly supports parental choice; he believes that parents, not politicians, should decide where their children attend school, whether it's traditional public or public charter.
- Shavar’s vision of Newark is one where each child in Newark receives an education comparable to that of the most affluent and competitive districts in our great state. It is a vision in which each K-12 classroom has a competent, committed teacher at its helm; each principal has the resources at his or her disposal to serve the children who walk through the school’s doors each day; and each school makes provisions for the education of every child regardless of their ward, family background, ethnic heritage, or language status.
- Emphasizing a strong foundation for our youngest residents, and relevant training for our adult population, a Jeffries administration will champion the cause of the #1 factor of social change and sustained progress: Education.
- Shavar has done more in support of Newark Public Schools than any other mayoral candidate in this race; through his litigation that returned more than $30 million dollars to the NPS budget and other work during his service as Advisory Board President, he has championed education in Newark. Shavar filed a lawsuit against the state that produced millions of dollars in new services and compensatory education for special-needs children, allowing the district to provide our children with much needed programs and resources.
- Drawing from his experiences as the founding chairperson of a public charter school board, and the former chair of the advisory board of Newark Public Schools, Shavar advocates a multi-faceted approach to educating our children:
- improving and supporting the teaching workforce;
- expanding learning time for children;
- ensuring that there are community resources to attend to the socio-emotional aspects of a child’s life that impede learning
- appropriately funding all worthwhile initiatives so that they can be fully enacted
- Shavar supports the continuing fight to regain local control of the Newark Public Schools, in a responsible way. During Shavar’s tenure of service as President of the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board, Newark scored above 80% in four of the five state monitored categories. Shavar will encourage key state legislators to enact legislation to clearly specify steps for return of local control.