In releasing his latest gubernatorial campaign policy paper last month, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop put the spotlight on a number of problematic areas in New Jersey state government, saying out loud what many in power would prefer to be kept as dirty little secrets:
- Ethics requirements for elected officials and powerful party leaders are woefully lacking and outdated.
- The state budget process encourages backroom deals and secrecy.
- Legislation to prevent conflicts of interest has been watered down in recent years.
- Legislation to promote transparency has been watered down in recent days.
Kudos to Fulop for laying out these truths and promising to tackle them if elected. Whether or not he’s successful at the ballot box in November 2025, we hope his spotlight provides an impetus for reform. (To read the 14-page paper, go to stevenfulop.com/policies/government-reform-policy/.)
On the key point of transparency, however, we have a pretty big bone to pick with Fulop, who’s now in his third term at the helm of Jersey City, and it involves one of the most important issues for residents and visitors to the city: crime.
First, Fulop insists that all information about reported crime in Jersey City come out of the mayor’s office, making it hard for anyone to get information directly from the police themselves. Long gone are the days when reporters could visit precincts and view the old blotters, but the Fulop administration has made an art of trying to control the narrative.
Most often when we ask about crimes we know have been reported, particularly shootings, the information comes more than 24 hours later and is bare-bones, usually one line, with follow-up questions ignored.
It smacks of a concerted effort to make it as hard as possible for both citizens and the news media to connect the dots about how Jersey City is actually doing fighting neighborhood crime.
And second, in June 2018, a feature of the city website that had given the public easy access to crime trends in their neighborhoods stopped being updated. Called CompStat, the tool originally designed for the NYPD was remarkably forward-looking, using digital statistics reporting and the power of the internet to arm residents with information. You could, for example, figure out if reported burglaries, auto thefts or rapes were on the rise not just citywide but in your specific area.
It wasn’t just interesting information; it was information people could act on.
Despite years of residents and the media asking why the tool had been discontinued and when it or a superior tool would be offered anew, Fulop and his administration have refused to give satisfactory answers.
If anything, the mayor and others disingenuously tout transparency that just isn’t there.
When The Jersey Journal asked again just last month, city leaders pointed us to a section of the Police Division’s page on the city website that allegedly keeps residents informed of crime trends.
Here’s what it said last week:
“As of 6/23/24:
“2024: Shooting Incidents – 17; Shooting Victims – 24; Homicides – 5
“2023: Shooting Incidents – 20; Shooting Victims – 22; Homicides – 8
“2022: Shooting Incidents – 25; Shooting Victims – 29; Homicides – 7″
It’s followed by a chart with incomplete numbers in those categories – ticking off citywide numbers for only January, February and March – as well as in several other categories, notably missing sexual assault.
None of the information provided is useful. Instead, it’s window dressing designed to give the appearance of transparency.
Excuses generally include references to changes in categories and processes for required reporting to the federal government, but that’s hardly an answer.
Public safety officials know what crimes are being reported and where. They do, or can, type them into databases and spreadsheets. They do, or can, employ humans or artificial intelligence tools to create a map showing up-to-date trends at the police district, neighborhood or even block level.
Technological advances can and should be enabling broader, not narrower, access to information.
In the policy paper, entitled “Strengthening Our Democracy & Meaningful Government Reform in New Jersey,” the Fulop gubernatorial campaign writes:
“Mayors, however, set the tone for how their administration will operate and their priorities.”
That’s 100 percent true.
It’s time for Fulop to start practicing what he wisely preaches. Bring back CompStat or a comparable tool and stop trying to pretend – with citizens and the press – that crime doesn’t happen in the city.
Send letters to the editor and guest columns for The Jersey Journal to jjletters@jjournal.com.
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