Montclair to Maximize Police Force After Latest in String of Shootings

Montclair will maximize its police force and step up patrols after gunshots were fired on town streets for the fifth time in 90 days.

The township council convened with police officials for an emergency meeting Tuesday night less than 24-hours after four people were shot on Mission Street in what police are calling a targeted shooting.

“We are … looking to maximizing our force and the presence that force throughout the township to make sure everyone feels safe,” Councilor Sean Spiller said. “We ... asked that the police use all resources as possible to increase patrols around town.” 

The Mission Street shooting is causing the township to act aggressively to combat what Deputy Mayor Robert Russo called a “pervasive issue” in Montclair and Essex County.

The recent spike in violence has left Fourth Ward residents with an uneasy feeling, urging officials to open a police substation in the neighborhood and for the creation of more programs for area youth to join.

The council held a closed-doors meeting with police officials starting at 6:30 p.m., and finally faced the public at around 9:30 p.m. — nearly an hour after the meeting was originally scheduled. The public response was tepid, with only about a half-dozen people attending the meeting.

There will be a community meeting Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the Montclair Fire Department Headquarters, at 1 Pine St.

Township Manager Marc Dashield on Tuesday laid out more than a half dozen short- and long-term proposals to curb the growing crime and shootings in town. 

In The Short-Term

• Increase the police presence in the Mission Street area by dedicating four officers to the neighborhood in addition to the regular patrols. 
• The Montclair Street Crime’s Unit will be placed in the Mission Street area, where five additional officers will be at all times.
• Regular patrols in the Mission Street area will be increased.
  
• The Essex County Sheriff’s Office has committed to increasing its presence in Montclair after 9 p.m. “whenever they have officers available” during the next few weeks, Dashield said.    

In The Long-Term

• Install additional security cameras in the area. 
• Revise police scheduling to place more officers on the streets. 
  
• Re-evaluate traffic patterns to make the area “less accessible to some people that are coming into the community to cause harm,” Dashield said. 
• Improve lighting.

These are only the initial proposals, Dashield said, and the township will continue to monitor the area and make further changes.

“We treat this as a very serious issue," he said. "We will address it. Our department is putting as many resources as it can into that area.”

The township is working to curb the shootings, Mayor Robert Jackson said, but warned change will not come immediately.  

“This behavior is … not tolerable,” Jackson said. “We will not stand for it to occur in our community. We will dedicate whatever resources we need ... to ensure that it is eradicated. … But we are going to have to dig our heels in at this point and make sure we do the necessary things to address what I believe to be an aberration.”