The Ruins of Trenton

"Crime is down."

These were the words of Kent Ashworth, city spokesman for Trenton, following the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision that a referendum on an ordinance that was blocked by city hall efforts was indeed open to referendum.

He was trying to make the point that the ordinance, whether open to referendum or not, was successful after it reorganized the police department, and had actually helped improve the crime situation in Trenton.

These type of comments are quite confusing to many residents, who say they don't understand the Palmer administration's "crime is down" mantra when they hear about crime all over town, all the time.

There were nights this summer when there was police activity anywhere you looked in the city.

On one September night in particular, sources personally observed four separate crime scenes only to see not a single report on whatever happened in the media the next day.

Any observation that crime is down is probably the result of under reporting by the department, or creative downgrading of crimes before they become Uniform Crime Report statistics.

Or, maybe the understaffed Trenton police don't have the time to file official reports about crimes or to even respond to more minor crime scenes.

Whatever the case, crime is certainly not down.

And Trenton needs more officers, ASAP.