The Camden County Police Department continues to reduce property crimes like illegal dumping, graffiti and other quality of life issues throughout the city. Less than a month ago the mayor and Board of Commissioners held a press conference outside a gas station located at 2361 Admiral Wilson Boulevard that had become a haven for illegal dumping, squatting and drug use. Since that time, the property was cleaned, and the structures were fortified by the city Department of Public Works.
On Friday, Dec. 6, suspect Donald Park III, from Cherry Hill Township was arrested not once, but twice spray-painting graffiti on the gas station. Christina Wilson of Palmyra was also on site and arrested. Initially, at 4:06 p.m. officers arrived on site and arrested both Park and Wilson. They were both charged with defiant trespassing. Park was then charged with criminal mischief and Wilson had a second charge of conspiracy.
Later, after sundown, Park was again arrested on the same site at 8:11 p.m. at the same location. Park’s vehicle was impounded, and he was again charged with criminal mischief and defiant trespassing. Park was remanded to the Camden County Jail.
Chief Gabriel Rodriguez talked about the importance of being able to utilize our eye in the sky technology to catch suspects undermining city neighborhoods.
“Having state of the art technology to catch these suspects in the act and then being able to immediately respond in a forward leaning position is invaluable to our agency,” Rodriguez said. “For whatever reason, this individual who wanted to revisit the scene of the crime was caught again and this should send a message to people looking to treat the city as their playground. We are watching and we will arrest you if you come here to undermine our quality of life.”
Camden City Mayor Victor Carstarphen praised the police department and issued a warning to anyone looking to anyone trying to undermine city neighborhoods.
“The Camden County Police Department continually shows up for this community, ensuring that anyone threatening our quality of life is immediately handled properly,” Carstarphen said. “This should serve as a message to anyone who may doubt how seriously we take this: you are not welcome to come to Camden to dump your trash, to spray your graffiti or to behave in any type of way that disturbs this community’s progress. I want to thank the police department again for their tireless efforts in keeping our city moving forward.”