Minneapolis isn’t the first city to disband its PD. “In 2013, the Camden Police Department was disbanded, reimagined, and born again as the Camden County Police Department, with fewer officers, lower pay—and a strategic shift toward “community policing.” citylab.com/equity/2018/01…
Camden, NJ disbanding & restructuring its police department in 2013 was a big success. In 2017, the city — once considered one of the most dangerous in the US — saw its murder rate fall to the lowest level since 1987, in addition to decline in other crimes citylab.com/equity/2018/01…
Camden, NJ “is now something of a showroom for community policing techniques. Officers are trained to use handguns and handcuffs only as tools of last resort” and many wear both GPS trackers and body cameras citylab.com/equity/2018/01…
UPDATE: just heard from a CityLab editor that the story here from Jan. 2018 incorrectly states that the restructured PD hired fewer offices when they actually hired *more*, as some have noted. This recent Bloomberg piece from the same author has more: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
More context from the Bloomberg piece from last week on how Camden teamed up with the county to provide shared policing services: “Over the past seven years, the department has undertaken some of the most far-reaching police reforms in the country.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 
