This is how Paterson government and police will focus on public safety in 2023 | Sayegh

Two weekends ago, Paterson detectives arrested four individuals and seized four guns within 24 hours. Last week, an 18-year-old was taken into custody after being found to be in possession of a high capacity 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

This year, our Paterson Police Department has seized 187 illegal weapons. Last year, we seized 221 guns and, in 2020, our officers confiscated 200 guns. With several weeks left in December, we are on pace to remove 200 illegal guns from our streets for the third consecutive year. That amounts to three or four guns a week and more than 600 guns confiscated in three years.

Next year, we will launch our Crime Intelligence Center in Paterson, which will be the only one in New Jersey. Thanks to the support and efforts of Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., we were awarded a $700,000 grant to establish the center to enhance our turnaround time and increase our efficiency relative to shooting investigations. Moreover, this initiative will help us trace guns and track down shooters.

Public safety is a high priority in Paterson. This year, we hired over 40 new police officers, which represents the largest number of cops hired in 10 years. Later this month, I will swear-in another 22 police officers and next month, we plan to send an additional 27 cadets to our upcoming police academy, which will be one of the largest classes in more than a decade.

Working with our acting police chief Bert Ribeiro, we will continue to invest in community policing to improve the relationship between the police and the public. In the wake of what has occurred in the past, we’ve ushered in an era of accountability. Measures we have taken to increase trust and transparency include equipping our police officers with body cameras and performing an audit on the police department that resulted in additional de-escalation training.

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We also will kick off another initiative to help build bonds with the community called “Shop with A Cop.” As a part of this program, our police officers will take more than 100 Paterson children shopping and we plan to expand the outreach in the future.

We will also augment police presence in our commercial corridors. Utilizing funding made available through the Urban Enterprise Zone to hire off-duty police officers to patrol our streets.

In 2023, we will continue our collaboration with our federal, state and county partners to bring violent criminals to justice and improve the way we police in Paterson. With the unprecedented level of economic development taking place in Paterson, we are adamant about making Paterson a safer city, which will make us a stronger city.

Andre Sayegh is mayor of Paterson.