James Solomon Unveils Comprehensive Public Safety Plan For Jersey City 

James Solomon Unveils Comprehensive Public Safety Plan For Jersey City 

Dil Bar Irshad | May 14, 2025 | 08:06 PM IST | Breaking News, Politics, World | Follow on Google News

JERSEY CITY, NJ – Councilman James Solomon, a candidate for Mayor of Jersey City, has released a forward-thinking public safety platform focused on delivering a safe and just city. His plan will restore morale in the police department, keep our fire department independent, and restore trust between residents and law enforcement. It will ensure that police officers are visible, engaged, and working directly in the communities they serve and that they are treated with dignity and respect.

Councilman James Solomon said: “To keep our city safe, the community has to trust the people sworn to protect it and we must increase morale in the public safety department. That starts with putting officers back in our neighborhoods, ensuring fire apparatuses are fully staffed, and making investments in the city’s grassroots non violence organizations to address the root causes of violent crime. As Mayor, I’ll make sure we have more officers walking the beat, the nation’s best mental health crisis intervention response system, and a renewed commitment to both justice and safety. Jersey City deserves nothing less.”

Read Breaking News

Key components of Solomon’s public safety plan include:

1. Improve our Police Force: More officers on the beat, better morale and the nation’s best mental health crisis response system.

• Increase the police force by 100 officers and streamline the command structure and specialized units to get more officers back into the community. 
• Respect and recognize officers by bringing back the annual awards ceremony, and providing advancement opportunities based on merit and performance, rather than political connections. 
• Bring back a well-staffed traffic enforcement unit, and fight to get speed cameras in school zones and other key safety areas. 
• Improve both community relations and officer response times by eliminating mandatory fixed posts, returning flexibility and resources to commanders in the field.
• Ensure accountability for both residents and officers by calling on the State Legislature to pass legislation authorizing a Civilian Complaint Review Board with investigatory and disciplinary authority, subject to appropriate safeguards.
• Build the best-in-the-country mental health crisis response system by fully connecting it to 911; sending only clinicians for non-violent cases, and pairing them with police when safety is a concern.

2. Keep our Fire Department first-class and independent. 

• Only candidate to commit to NEVER merging JCFD with any other fire department. 
• Eliminate the wasteful Public Safety Director position, instead having separate police and fire directors who report directly to the Mayor. 
• Stop dangerous firehouse closure and ensure full staffing for fire apparatuses. 
• Strengthen enforcement for fire hazard prevention and direct the municipal prosecutor to seek maximum penalties for fire hazard violations. 
• Ensure that all JCFD firehouses are brought up to acceptable, modern working conditions. 
• Continue to invest in top-tier training and equipment for firefighters.

3. Invest in grassroots anti-violence efforts. 

• Increase funding for evidence-based violence prevention programs in Jersey City. 
• Support non-violence organizations with office space, non-profit technical assistance, City support for community events, and access to crime data.
• Implement evidence-based public health responses to violent crime, like CURE Violence, and  increase the availability of youth development initiatives like summer jobs and after school programs 
• Launch a city-wide Neighborhood Watch program to train residents in crime prevention and strengthen communications channels between residents and the JCPD. 

Dil Bar Irshad

Dil Bar Irshad is a seasoned journalist, hails from Jammu Kashmir's Doda, covers political, social, business stories, index stories.