BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH -— Crime in the city decreased by 15.6 percent over the last four years, state crime statistics show.
During the same period, statistics compiled by the state police show that violent crime in Long Branch has gone down by 6.7 percent.
According to Lt. Detective Bruce Johantgen, the decline is due to the addition of manpower.
“The crime rate has gone down and the increase in the force has a lot to do with that,” Johantgen said. “We are not as busy as we used to be.”
In 1993, the police department was comprised of 67 officers, according to Mayor Adam Schneider, who said currently there are 100 police officers serving Long Branch as a result of the federal Cop Fast program.
The city began participating in the program, initiated during the Clinton administration to put more police on the streets, in 1994, said Ronald Mehlhorn Sr., city financial director.
“It put hundreds of thousands of cops on the road across the country,” he said.
The federal program offered a series of grants — Cops, Cops Fast, Cops Fast I, Cops Fast II, etc., that paid half the salary of each new police officer for approximately four years, Mehlhorn explained.
When the grant ran out, the city absorbed the full salary of the officer.
The city participated for four years and was able to add 21 officers to the force under the program, according to Mehlhorn who said the grants totaled $1,445,000 in salaries.
“Nationwide you saw crime rates drop,” Mehlhorn said.
“You had a town no one wanted to live in and now crime had dropped approximately 60 percent and people started moving in,” he said.
Schneider said in his first two election runs in 1990 and 1994, crime was a huge issue.
“The crime rate was going up for the first couple of years,” he said. “You cannot run a city and make it a better place to live and have a crime problem.”
The program decreased crime, but increased taxes in the city, according to Schneider.
He said the average police officer’s salary is in the mid-$50,000 range after a few years on the force. When the grants ran out, the entire salary became the responsibility of the city.
“You can have high taxes and crime or you can have slightly higher taxes and be able to attack the problem,” he said. “Spending the money is well worth it.”
Johantgen said technology has also added to the city’s success in lowering the crime rate.
A mobile data terminal, or portable computer, that allows officers to record their work has been installed in each police vehicle, he said.
“They now can file their reports from their cars, instead of coming into the office,” Johantgen said. “They are staying on the road so now they can respond quicker to calls.
“The quicker you get the call, the quicker you can begin to solve it,” he said.

