Metro

Newark lays off 167 cops

More than 150 Newark police officers lost their jobs yesterday after negotiations between their union and New Jersey’s largest city broke off, reducing the police force as violent crime has started to rise after three years of decline.

The layoffs began at midnight Monday and continued through 4 p.m. yesterday when remaining officers finished their shifts, Police Director Garry McCarthy said.

The 167 layoffs mark the city’s largest force reduction in 32 years.

Mayor Cory Booker criticized the Fraternal Order of Police for an “unwillingness to make one penny’s worth of concessions in order to save jobs,” and noted that all other city employee unions had made concessions in recent months.

He also slammed the union’s executive board for rejecting the city’s demands without putting them to a vote by the full membership.

FOP President Derrick Hatcher defended the union’s actions, and said its proposals could have saved the officers’ jobs and maintained the existing contract.

“To put it out for a vote would basically be renegotiating our contract,” he said.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said yesterday that the anti-crime group would send members from New York City to patrol parts of Newark.

“Hopefully, a settlement can be reached, but in the interim, we’re asking a lot of our New York Angels to spend time over in Newark,” Sliwa said. “Newark’s done a great job driving down the crime rate, and they don’t deserve this.”

McCarthy said he would welcome any help, but Hatcher called the group’s efforts “a waste of time.”

“We can do our policing ourselves,” Hatcher said. “It’s going to create more of a nuisance than a benefit for the city.”