About 280,000 people reside in Newark, New Jersey. Gun crimes have been a serious problem in this city, with gangs and drugs driving the violence. More than 300 shootings and 105 murders occurred in 2015 alone. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Newark’s 2015 homicide (murder) rate (37 per 100,000 residents) was more than three times higher than the national rate (10 per 100,000) for larger cities.

In 2011, the Newark Police Department’s aggressive law enforcement practices came under fire. After years of complaints about police misconduct from local activists and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Justice Department announced that it was launching an investigation. Its 2014 report concluded that the Newark Police Department (PD) had engaged in a pattern or practice of abuse of the city’s black residents that included unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests. (A “pattern or practice” suggests that discrimination against black residents was part of a system-wide policy or procedure.)