A resolution introduced by the police director has reignited a debate in the city over community policing. Introduced by Director Michael Moriarty, the resolution, which was passed unanimously at the May 24 City Council meeting, asked for the council's endorsement of a six-year-old community policing plan. But some members, especially Ward A Councilman Robert Cavanaugh, have had severe misgivings over the way the city's community policing is managed. Cavanaugh and certain patrol officers are claiming that morale has been shattered in precincts across the city, while the director and mayor's office are sticking by the plan, noting that crime and 911 calls have dropped. "The city...expects the full cooperation of the Police Department and all other City Departments, Divisions, autonomous agencies, commissions and boards in continuing their joint efforts..." read the resolution in part. It's a matter new chief Frank Grajewski (see sidebar) is going to have to iron out. A short history of community policing The Neighborhood Task Force (NTF) was launched in 1994 by Mayor Bret Schundler, who saw the power of the police unions as a crippling force. The community-minded NTF was aimed at getting officers out on the street, involved in the neighborhood, and rooting out problems at the base level. Schundler claimed that most police jobs had been a result of "Jersey City's patronage-politics past, where comfortable jobs in all city departments were given as a reward for political service and loyalty," he wrote in a 1994 article in the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review. The mayor sought to end that patronage by phasing out cushy desk jobs and "civilianizing" many positions. "The first interest of many police officers is to do whatever they can to get off the street and into a desk job as quickly as possible," he further wrote. Aside from the myriad political implications, the police department was also suffering from a crime prevention standpoint, according to Director Michael Moriarty. "Police officers were becoming historians, instead of preventing crime from happening," he said in a recent interview. Moriarty admitted changing the force to a more on-the-beat approach was a "big cultural shift," but it was something that had to be done. "The NTF puts officers out on the street, where they talk to the public and go to community meetings," he said. Current problems Recent friction between newly-retired Chief William Thynne, Moriarty, and Schundler likely hastened Thynne's departure. Thynne had been resisting funneling more officers into the NTF, and Schundler asked for the chief's resignation earlier this year. But even further back there were problems, according to Moriarty. District commanders were yanking NTF officers from the street and putting them in desk jobs, or on prisoner watch, essentially taking them off the streets they were supposed to be monitoring. So two years ago, the NTF was separated from the regular patrol officers. It's a move that has created friction, to say the least. Currently, the roughly 140 NTF officers report directly to the NTF head, Gajewski. The department has recently been attempting to re-integrate the units in the south police district, but the other three districts are still separate. Many long-time officers complain of junior NTF officers getting choice vacation time slots and better working hours. But Moriarty explained that this is because of a "20 percent rule." Neither the NTF nor the patrol force can have more than 20 percent of its officers off at any one time. But when the forces were united, the generally more-junior NTF staff tended to get the less desirable vacation time. Now that they're separated, the 20 percent rule applies to each side. Thus, a relative newcomer to NTF may get a July 4 vacation slot, while a ten-year patrol officer may get stuck with the third week in September. Nevertheless, it's led to a perception that NTF officers are the "golden children," according to Councilman Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh grilled Moriarty at the May 22 caucus meeting. "Does the commander of the South have command whether they're NTF or Patrol?" he asked. "They will," responded Moriarty. Cavanaugh spoke of the open-air drug trade in the south, especially along Martin Luther King Drive and Ocean Avenue. "The south district is the worst precinct in town," said Cavanaugh. "We have severe problems." The new chief speaks Looking to ratchet up the community policing effort, mend relations in the black community after the Michael Anglin shooting, and curtail the open drug market, newly appointed Police Chief Frank Gajewski outlined his vision for Jersey City's law enforcement arm last week. A veteran of the force since 1972 and the head of the Neighborhood Task Force (NTF), the community policing division of the department, Gajewski steps into a position that has been the center of recent turmoil. Former Chief William Thynne's Thursday departure came only a few months after staving off a resignation request from Mayor Bret Schundler. Gajewski, a downtown resident, spoke of his early days as an undercover narcotics officer, when he sported long, flowing hair. That hair is gone now, but the city's narcotics problems are not. "The open-air drug markets are extremely troubling," he said. Gajewski pointed to the southern portion of the city, especially along Martin Luther King Drive and Ocean Avenue, as major hot spots. "Many markets have been going on for 20 years," he said. And to talk about stopping it is one thing, but getting the job done is another. Gajewski said he's toyed with many ideas over how to control the trade and the violent crime that often accompanies the dealing. For instance, he extols Seattle's implementation of an "abatement process" (not to be confused with tax abatements) as one tool. Through an abatement, the city can shut down a known drug establishment through building, or health violations as an end-around the dealers. It's somewhat akin to nabbing mobster Al Capone for tax evasion. Yet it's a battle that will likely go far into the future. "Can you get rid of all the drugs?" asked Gajewski. "That's like saying, 'Can you get rid of all the crime?'" Gajewski understands that there may be resentment and a lack of trust in the black community over the Michael Anglin shooting. Anglin, a fifteen-year-old, was shot to death by an officer in January after a botched car theft. The facts of the shooting have been bitterly disputed, and just last week a Grand Jury chose not to indict officer Vincent Corso, effectively ending the criminal case against the officer. Gajewski felt the county prosecutor's office investigation - which concluded the shooting was accidental - was thorough. Nevertheless, Gajewski said he wants to reach out to the community. "We want to create an open dialogue," he said. Gajewski also wants to raise the profile of the NTF officers, which have been somewhat anonymous in their communities, and eventually reunite them with the rest of the force. "We need to solve problems before they happen," he said. - Caren Lissner