Paterson, the third-largest city in New Jersey, is best known by its nickname, Silk City, for its once-dominant role in silk production during the latter half of the 19th century.

The Garden State has backed the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1992.

So, it wasn’t a surprise that Kamala Harris won the state in the 2024 presidential election. What was surprising is by how much – a nearly 6% margin, marking the first single-digit margin of victory for a Democrat in New Jersey since 2004.

What’s also notable is that the reliably Democratic county of Passaic, where Paterson is located, voted for Trump over Harris. The last time that happened was in 92 in support of George H. W. Bush.

President Trump has referred to himself as the “President of law and order.”

The City of Paterson is in a legal battle with the State Attorney General’s Office over who will control the city’s police department. The AG took over the Department after the 2023 fatal police shooting of Najee Seabrooks, an anti-violence advocate.

I spoke with Isa Abbassi, the Executive Director of the Office of Policing Strategy and Innovation (OPSI), about the NextGen Strategic Plan for the Paterson Police Department. “I thought it was important to have a road map, a path forward for the City of Paterson, which had undergone some tumultuous times,” Abbassi said. Before assuming the role of ED in November 2024, he joined the Paterson PD in May 2023 as Officer in Charge (OIC).

Abbassi previously served as the Chief of Strategic Initiatives at the New York City Police Department, where he had served for 26 years. In that role, he oversaw policy changes and was also the primary advisor to the Police Commissioner on short-term and long-term strategic goals.

The plan for Paterson is framed around four main objectives:

• Rebuild public trust and restore order in the community
• Evolution of community policing
• Innovation, technology, and strategic evaluation
• Recruitment, training, and employee well-being

Abassi said bringing community stakeholders into the management of their police department is necessary to rebuild community trust and ensure the PPD addresses the community’s concerns. “I did listening sessions in every ward of Paterson before ever contemplating the 55 points of this strategic plan to hear what the customer is looking for. Because at the end of the day, modern-day policing has to evolve to this customer solution. We are a service provider. We can no longer look at policing as this monopoly where you take what we are giving or not.”

Paterson has a crime rate higher than the national average. However, there are also reports of a recent decrease in homicides and shootings, their lowest level in a decade.

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Editor’s Note: Hugo Balta is the publisher of the Latino News Networkis and the executive editor of the Fulcrum.