Gloucester Township Touts Diversity, Police-Community Relations

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — When news of the fatal shooting of eight people at three massage parlors in Atlanta started to spread, Gloucester Township police went right to work.

“We do an in-house check of any names we can find that come through the databases that we have access to,” Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins said during the township council meeting on March 22. “We are always aware of it. We have mandatory training we do every year for officers to recognize bias crime. We are always on top of this.”

Harkins said New Jersey in general, and South Jersey in particular, is not seeing the same kind of hate crimes that much of the rest of the country has seen in the last few weeks. The state has what Harkins described as a “robust” reporting system, and there have been no indications of incidents since the shootings in Georgia earlier this month.

“When in doubt, we treat it as a bias crime until we prove otherwise,” Harkins said.

On Tuesday, the Attorney General's Office and New Jersey State Police released a list of bias incidents statewide for last year, broken down by town.

According to the list, there were nine bias incidents in Gloucester Township in 2020. There were three each in June and December, and one each in March, July and November.

Specifics about the incident weren't part of this report, but will be released later this year, according to the Attorney General's Office.

While releasing the top line data last week, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also announced that the Attorney General’s Office and the State Police will soon begin making bias incident data available to the public on a monthly basis, starting in April. These monthly bias incident reports will show breakdowns by bias type and county.

For purposes of the state's reporting, a “bias incident” is a suspected or confirmed violation of New Jersey’s bias intimidation statute, in which a victim is subjected to harassment, assault, terroristic threats, or other specified acts “because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.”

Because the data captures only reported bias incidents, it is under-inclusive in that it does not capture incidents that were never reported to law enforcement. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, over half of the victims of hate crimes in the U.S. from 2011 to 2015 did not report them.

Gloucester Township has a population of 63,884. According to the most recent statistics on ethnicity, 69 percent of Gloucester Township residents are white, while 17 percent are Black, 8 percent are Hispanic, 3 percent are Asian and another 3 percent have more than one ethnicity.

Harkins praised the police department’s community relations unit, which goes out and meets residents of the township, hosts events with members of the community, and establishes a bond and trust with the residents proactively.

One such event will take place on Friday, when the police department dedicates a PAVERART walkway to recognize Autism Awareness Day.

“Our public works guys did a great job putting it together,” Harkins said. “It will be right in front of the police station. It’s going to be a beautiful presentation.”

In 2015, the police department created a registry for residents with Autism or disabilities in order to give police quick access in an emergency to critical information about a person who is registered, according to information provided by the police department.

Residents provide emergency contact information, detailed physical descriptions, known routines, favorite attractions or special needs of an individual with Autism Disorder or other disabilities such as: Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Down Syndrome or any other endangered individuals.

This information can greatly assist police officers when time is essential in communicating and dealing with an emergency situation involving a person with Autism Disorder as well as other disabilities, police said.

The information people provide is confidential and will only be used by law enforcement.
Gloucester Township Councilwoman Carolyn Grace also praised the police department’s community relations efforts.

“I live in a very diverse community, and I like to see that everyone is respected and understood, so I thank you for the work you’re doing,” Grace said.

“It’s important to have a dialogue,” Gloucester Township Councilwoman Andrea Stubbs said. “We don’t always have to see eye-to-eye, but it is important to have a dialogue. I do appreciate that the township celebrates diversity, and everybody will be heard.”

Earlier in the meeting, township council held a moment of silence for the victims of the Atlanta shooting.

“Gloucester Township is a very diverse township,” resident Ray Polidoro said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “Everyone gets along. I don’t believe we have the problems that the rest of the country has. Everyone respects one another because we are who we are, and we want to keep it that way.”

Members of the public are encouraged to report bias incidents to their local police departments, or via the NJBIAS online portal at https://bias.njcivilrights.gov, or by calling 800-277-BIAS.