The City that Really Did Abolish the Police

And rebuilt the department from the ground up. The strange, hopeful, politically complicated story of Camden, N.J.

It was the moment that America needed.

Days after George Floyd died at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a different scene was playing out in what was once the most dangerous city in the United States.

Joseph D. Wysocki was marching in the streets of Camden alongside residents in “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts. He found the organizer of the protest: Yolanda Deaver. Wysocki introduced himself and asked if he could join...