{"id":2733,"date":"2019-01-17T02:02:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T07:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=2733"},"modified":"2019-01-17T04:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T09:12:03","slug":"downtown-toms-river-crime-plummeted-after-red-carpet-inn-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2019\/01\/downtown-toms-river-crime-plummeted-after-red-carpet-inn-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Toms River Crime Plummeted After Red Carpet Inn Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2446\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2446\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2446\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"The Red Carpet Inn, boarded up, the day it was purchased by Toms River Township, Oct. 30, 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33-681x454.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2446\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Red Carpet Inn, boarded up, the day it was purchased by Toms River Township, Oct. 30, 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When Toms River residents learned that there were over 750 calls to police regarding the Red Carpet Inn motel over the course of two years, it illustrated a rare blemish on the town&#8217;s otherwise safe reputation. Now that the township has shut down the motel and acquired the property, the impact is being felt in the reverse \u2013 with a dramatic decrease in crime coinciding with the Water Street motel&#8217;s closure.<\/p>\n<p>According to police figures, between Oct. 30 and\u00a0\u00a0Dec. 31,\u00a02018 in the downtown area:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Burglaries were reduced by 50%<\/li>\n<li>Narcotics incidents dropped 55%<\/li>\n<li>Theft was reduced 12.5%<\/li>\n<li>Arrests dropped 16.6%<\/li>\n<li>Assaults fell 40%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The township completed the taking of the property Oct. 30 and immediate shut it down and boarded up exposed areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe largest decline occurred in disorderly persons\u2019 incidents, which dropped from 13-to-1 or 92 percent,\u201d said Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher, a former county prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>Disorderly persons offenses is the term New Jersey uses for what most states refer to as a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis reveals a clear correlation between increased crime and safety concerns driven by the motel\u2019s operation,&#8221; said Kelaher. &#8220;Since the closure of the Red Carpet Inn, statistics show that crime in the entire neighborhood came down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2444\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2444\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2444\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A chain and lock on the door of the Red Carpet Inn after being purchased by the municipal government of Toms River, Oct. 29, 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_32-681x454.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2444\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chain and lock on the door of the Red Carpet Inn after being purchased by the municipal government of Toms River, Oct. 29, 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Police Chief Mitch Little said the police department worked closely with township officials and the recently-created Quality of Life Task Force to identify and address pressing issues facing the community. It was that work that initially led to the motel being declared a legal nuisance, which paved the way for the township to purchase the property.<\/p>\n<p>Councilman Terrance Turnbach, whose ward includes the downtown area, said the drop in crime will be a major factor in attracting redevelopment and new businesses to the area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In order for our downtown businesses to grow and prosper, the public must feel safe to come down and enjoy all that our downtown has to offer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The purchase of the Red Carpet Inn by the Township, and the resulting significant decline in criminal activity, demonstrates the Township&#8217;s commitment to the revitalization of our downtown.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2019\/01\/downtown-toms-river-crime-plummeted-after-red-carpet-inn-closure\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Toms River residents learned that there were over 750 calls to police regarding the Red Carpet Inn motel over the course of two years, it illustrated a rare blemish on the town&#8217;s otherwise safe reputation. Now that the township has shut down the motel and acquired the property, the impact is being felt in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,4],"tags":[770,650,141,465,11],"class_list":["post-2733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-police-fire-courts","tag-crime","tag-downtown-redevelopment","tag-downtown-toms-river","tag-red-carpet-inn","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red_carpet_inn_toms_river_nj_33.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}