By: DEBORAH HIRSCH • Courier-Post Staff • March 9, 2010

CAMDEN — Church and community leaders will hold a public rally tonight in support of proposed legislation that would make it easier for police to keep drug dealers from returning to the places where they were caught.

Camden Churches Organized for People pushed for the change after working with police to remove up drug dealers in East Camden.

The perennial problem had become even more blatant in recent months, said Monsignor Robert McDermott, co-chairman of CCOP.

"It's spoiling a neighborhood that we have worked hard to develop," McDermott said. "Neighbors are scared to death."

Despite cooperation from the police, drug dealers would return to the same spots not long after they were arrested, McDermott said.

"We want to blame the police sometimes for this kind of stuff, but their hands are tied," McDermott said.

Under the Drug Offense Restraining Order Act of 1999, police can request a restraining order to prevent a drug dealer from coming with 500 feet of a crime scene. But law enforcement officials must get a signature from a judge before issuing the order.

Most arrests in Camden happen after normal business hours when judges aren't around, said Police Chief Scott Thomson. By the next business day, the offender may have already made bail, Thomson said.

"It's next to impossible to find them at that point," he said, "or very taxing on many of our agencies. It creates a lot of undue work for people to get through this process."

Under a proposed amendment to the law, police would be able to immediately serve written notice that a restraining order would be sent to Superior Court to be signed.

"There's no additional step that we need to wait for," Thomson said.

Assemblyman Angel Fuentes, D-Camden, who introduced the amendment on Thursday, said this will give police the ammunition they need to target perpetual nuisances. Once a restraining order is in effect, police would be able to arrest a drug dealer simply for being in an off-limits area.

"We're going to put some teeth into this so police officers can go after these bad guys," Fuentes said.

Teresa Reyes, an associate director at The Romero Center, a social justice program, said this won't solve the city's drug problems, but at least it will give residents another tool to keep dealers away from their homes.

"How the law is now, it's never applied because it's not realistic," Reyes said.