By: Matt Katz
Inquirer Staff Writer
April 28th, 2010

Nearly 99 percent of the Camden police budget is devoted to salaries, leaving little left over for the tools of the law-enforcement trade.

So Mayor Dana L. Redd and Police Chief Scott Thomson joined several Camden business leaders Tuesday to announce an initiative that allows individuals and companies to make tax-deductible contributions to the Police Department.

The new nonprofit Camden Police Foundation, online at camdenpolicefoundation.org and begun with more than $50,000 in donations from a handful of companies, is similar to educational foundations, which have raised money for school districts for years.

The foundation's 20-member board is made up of representatives from the city's most powerful and deep-pocketed entities, from companies such as Lockheed Martin and Campbell Soup to institutions such as Rutgers-Camden's law school and Cooper University Hospital.

The foundation is led by Allan Vogelson, a retired judge, and Greg Charbeneau, the executive director of the Adventure Aquarium, where Tuesday's announcement was made.

"There is a renewed synergy and a renewed energy toward revitalization in the city of Camden," Redd said.

Donations, according to Thomson, would allow the department to enhance its K-9 unit or create a cadet program for teenagers. It would provide money for police mobile trailers and Segways.

Camden is perennially ranked at the top of national lists of the most dangerous and impoverished cities, and Thomson said he had been told he had the toughest police job in America.

But donations could build on the department's recent success, he said, including a 13 percent reduction in crime this year over last.

"Crime prevention is the single most cost-efficient economic stimulus for our city," he said.