Amid Some Positive Crime Trends, Jersey City Grapples With 911 Issues, Murky Statistics

JERSEY CITY, NJ — In a public safety review at the end of 2022, and again in his State of the City address three weeks ago, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop revealed that crime was down in Jersey City in several important categories.

In a press conference at the end of last year, Fulop said homicides and shootings were trending downward, with homicides dropping from 22 in 2021 to 13 in 2022. And a recent Washington Post story noted that Jersey City was one of the few cities nationwide to have no fatal shootings by police from 2015-2021.

But this year started with two domestic violence killings of Jersey City teachers by their partners in as many months. And for more than a year, residents have been concerned about other aspects of crime in Jersey City, particularly not being able to report it.

911 Doesn't Answer

Last summer, a resident who witnessed an accident referred to a long-running problem.

"They called 911 but no one answered (this has been a recurring problem for at least a decade)," the resident wrote on social media:

Then, in February 2023, a video was posted by HudPost that showed a car crashing into Jersey City's Taqueria restaurant. In the video, someone says, "911's not picking up. Are you video-ing? Is that the kid? Since when does 911 not pick up?"

This isn't a just sporadic complaint.

Council President Joyce Watterman cited 911 dispatcher "understaffing" last October, as the City Council considered and then rejected a $213,ooo contract to evaluate the 911 system.

Three weeks ago, 911 dispatchers told NJ.com that they hadn't been paid, also airing complaints about "understaffing, lack of supervision and forced overtime," according to NJ.com.

But last week, the City Council finally voted to approve a $213,000 contract with private company IXP to evaluate 911 operations.

A New Crime Number Discrepancy

The Fulop administration has also been criticized for allegedly downplaying crime, or releasing incomplete statistics. Several years ago, the city stopped using CompStat to release the numbers, drawing criticism back then as well as more recently.

This month, the city posted updated crime numbers on its website through April 16, with a comparison of homicides in the first quarter of 2023 and the same time in the previous two years.

However, the homicide number appears lower than what's been reported in the media.

According to the site, there were three homicides this year as of April 16, 2023, compared with four in 2022 by this time, and six in 2021.

However, in addition to the two teachers allegedly killed in their Jersey City homes by estranged husbands this year, there were two homicides of men in Jersey City in March and January 2023, which comes to four killings that have been made public so far.

When asked about this Thursday, city public safety spokesperson Kim Wallace-Scalcione said she was checking with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office about the discrepancy.

Wallace-Scalcione said Friday that the Prosecutor's Office had recorded the death of teacher Luz Hernandez as a Kearny case.

However, while Hernandez was found dead in Kearny, the complaint from investigators says that Hernandez's ex was seen walking toward her house in Jersey City the last night she was seen alive. Then, he was seen dragging away a bin. After Hernandez's car was impounded in Kearny, investigators found found blood stains, black hair, a pick axe, a rope, and the black and yellow bin. READ MORE: Slain Teacher's Ex Had Blood In Car

The discrepancy shows the murky nature of crime statistics and reporting.

Recent Updates On Public Safety

In his State of the City address on March 28 (see it here), Fulop gave a public safety update with several positive updates:

• The city ended 2022 with a nearly 50 percent decrease in homicides and 30 percent decrease in shootings, as compared with Mayor Fulop’s first full year in office. "We are on track for even better results this year," the city noted.
• "Heeding the public’s call for better de-escalation practices," the city is constructing its first De-Escalation Training Center.
• Of the 777 police officers hired under the Fulop administration, three out of every four are minorities. "This is a direct result of our ongoing diversity recruitment efforts, which have also grown the Police Department to its largest size in decades," the city said.

Public Safety Facility Centralizes Services

The city also made progress this month by combining several emergency and social services into one new building, which they say will help with 911 response times. Last week, the city opened its public safety headquarters in the Bergen-Lafayette section.

Fulop joined City Council members, public safety officials, and community members to celebrate the Public Safety Headquarters building on Martin Luther Drive.

"The new HQ brings the vision Mayor Fulop launched in 2015 of an extensive municipal complex to reality, inclusive of public-facing city services, thousands of jobs, and bringing investment into the south and west areas of Jersey City," said a release.

The city said that the police, firefighters, traffic operations, parking, and Quality of Live division had operated for years out of buildings all over the city. The headquarters "will boost public safety by centralizing Police and Fire Department operations and personnel under one roof to streamline critical services, improve 911 response times, provide one-stop resident services, and increase police presence in the area around the clock."

“This is a major milestone for Jersey City and a major step forward in reimagining public safety,” said Council President Joyce Watterman.

Bail Reform

In his press conference at the end of 2022, Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea also said that bail reform could be "emboldening" low-level criminals, and that it has to be evaluated, NJ Spotlight reported.

Watch the public safety press conference from back in December here.

Read this story from 2010 about the 28 murders in Jersey City in 2009, many of them taking the lives of young men.

Catch up on other recent important stories on Jersey City Patch here.