Photo by Luis Valdez
Assemblyman Angel Fuentes speaks at a press conference on Fifth Street between State and Garden streets to celebrate the recent passage of DORO (Drug Offender Restraining Order Act) in New Jersey.
CAMDEN — People of Camden will continue to work with local leaders and with police officials to help make the city a safe place in which to live, and a new law will give them more tools in those efforts, political and community representatives declared April 13.
Rosa Ramirez, former chairwoman of Camden Churches Organized for People (CCOP), predicted passage of the Drug Offender Restraining Order Act (DORO) will encourage people to come forward to help police to fight drugs.
Community leaders and local officials on April 13 held a press conference on Fifth Street between State and Garden streets to celebrate the recent passage of DORO in New Jersey.
With Ramirez at the press conference were Zoraida Gonzales-Torres, another CCOP leader, Assemblyman Angel Fuentes, Camden Mayor Dana Redd, some members of the Camden City Council, Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk, and Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton.
DORO effectively gives police more power to take down drug offenders. Police will be able to get approval of restraining orders from judges by phone in order to keep drug offenders from returning to the very corner they were using as open-air drug markets.
When drug offenders are arrested at a drug hotspot, said Ramirez, there are timing restrictions that limit how quickly restraining orders against drug offenders can be processed.
Gonzales-Torres noted, “People in Camden know drug-dealing is happening, and we are scared. We are people of faith and we pray that this law will help lesson the impact of the drug economy on our daily lives.”
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