ASBURY PARK PRESS

APP.COM $1.00

TUESDAY 05.19.15

Whos
watching
you?
Limit cellphone ad
tracking. Tech
Tuesday, 6A

Lakewood school district in turmoil as state official makes visit. 3A

OBAMA PRAISES
CAMDEN POLICE

No support
for planned
NJ Transit
fare hikes
Riders, officials: Agency
isnt using funds wisely
BOB JORDAN @BOBJORDANAPP

CHRIS LACHALL/COURIER-POST

President Barack Obama gestures toward the crowd prior to speaking at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in
Camden on Monday.

President: City is example of better urban policing

See HIKES, Page 10A

JIM WALSH @JIMWALSH_CP

CAMDEN President Barack Obama came here
Monday to commend a new approach to law enforcement, telling a cheering crowd this city is onto something.
During a three-hour visit, Obama visited the hightech nerve center of the Camden County Police Department, then stopped at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps
Community Center in Cramer Hill to talk with local
teens and officers and to deliver a speech on police reform.
The president called for a greater emphasis on community policing, saying its use by the Camden County
Police Department had cut crime and made the city a
symbol of promise for the nation.
He also discussed recommendations in a report released Friday by his Task Force on 21st Century Policing, including several tactics already in use by the county department.
Obama noted county police officers walk their beats
and actually get to know the residents, in part by participating in social activities unrelated to law enforcement. He said violent crime has dropped sharply since
the departments formation in May 2013 and, with more
officers on the streets, residents are seeing quicker re-

See PRAISE, Page 10A

AMTRAK CRASH
Phila. derailment victim mourned at Holmdel service. Page 4A

CHRIS LACHALL/COURIER-POST

President Barack Obama high-fives 7-year-old Jaiden Steele

of Camden on Monday after speaking at the Kroc Center.

The kids who grow up here, theyre

Americas children. Just like children
everyplace else, theyve got hopes,
and theyve got dreams, and theyve
got potential.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Whos packing heat

ANDREW FORD @ANDREWFORDNEWS

Military gear given to Shore area police forces

From .50-caliber weapons to grenade launchers,

President Barack Obama said, he will limit military
equipment available to local police agencies.
The president will enact recommendations made by
a group that included members of the New Jersey State
Police. The groups report was critical of equipment
that isnt necessary and sends the wrong message to
communities.
The report cites grenade launchers that could be
used to shoot tear gas but their use and misuse can be
detrimental to maintaining public trust in law enforcement. There are other ways to shoot tear gas without
looking like the military, it says.
For the first time, the Asbury Park Press reviewed

MIDDLETOWN: A mine-resistant vehicle, which originally

cost $412,000, that would be prohibited if weaponized. Township police also received hundreds of items from night vision
equipment to two self-contained breathing apparatuses
originally worth about $3.2 million.
ASBURY PARK: One tracked low-speed tractor.
BERKELEY: Eighteen 5.56 mm rifles, three utility trucks, a
cargo truck and a forklift.
HAZLET: Twelve 5.56 mm rifles, eight in 7.62 mm, an arc
welder and a mine detecting set.
JACKSON: Sixty-four 5.56 mm rifles and seven 7.62 mm
rifles.
MANCHESTER: Fifty 5.56 mm rifles.

See GEAR, Page 10A

ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL
MOVIES

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP Commuters are weighing in

on the 9 percent fare hike proposed by NJ Transit, and it
isnt pretty.
For starters, residents at the first public hearing on
the proposal Monday night ripped agency officials for
choosing the Monmouth County Agricultural Building
on Kozloski Road as the site because the venue isnt serviced by late-day mass transit.
You put it in a place people cant even get to, one angry speaker told Dennis Martin, the NJ Transit hearing
officer.
The agency will also hold hearings in New Brunswick,
Atlantic City, Secaucus, Camden, Newark, Hackensack,
Trenton, Morristown and Paterson through Thursday.
The plan to boost fares for rail, light rail and bus service will be considered by the NJ Transit board July 8.
Here are five things commuters say they hate about
NJ Transits plan:
1. It will be too expensive to use mass transit.
Shore area train commuters to New York Penn Station say theyre getting soaked, with monthly passes
from Aberdeen-Matawan slated to hit $421, up $35, a 9.1
percent jump. Plus a half-dozen bus lines across the state
would also be cut back, including two lines from Freehold and Philadelphia to Great Adventure.
2. The hikes will fund the NJ Transit executive suite.
A month ago NJ Transit, which already has more than

6D
7D
5D
3A
4D

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
TECH TUESDAY
WEATHER

8A
11A
1C
6A
8C

VOLUME 136
NUMBER 119

"6<;<3
 










"TCVSZ
1BSL
1SFTT
EBJMZ

SINCE 1879

LLLLLLLL

U.S. foreign policy,

Chris Christie style
MICHAEL SYMONS @MICHAELSYMONS_
TRENTON It made for quite the juxtaposition Monday: While President Barack Obama was visiting Camden to discuss urban policy, Gov. Chris Christie was
300 miles away in New Hampshire ripping the presidents foreign policy.
Putting shape to a not-yet-official bid for the Republican nomination for president, Christie delivered a 47minute speech on a topic that often bedevils governors
seeking the White House. He struck a hawkish call for
more military spending and forcefully defended intelligence and surveillance efforts in a waterfront
speech at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, with a naval
shipyard in the background.
Christie criticized the framework for what he
called Obamas tragic deal with Iran on its nuclear
program and gave bad reviews to Obamas record on
intelligence collection, Syria, Iraq and Israel. On the
last of those topics, he said it was immature for Obama to wait two days to call Prime Minister Benjamin

See CHRISTIE, Page 10A