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	'''Camden''' is a city in [[Camden County, New Jersey\|Camden County]], in the U.S. state of [[New Jersey]], situated on the eastern bank of the [[Delaware River]] directly across from [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. The city was incorporated in 1828 and named county seat when Camden County separated from [[Gloucester County, New Jersey\|Gloucester County]] in 1844. For generations it served as the commercial heart of South Jersey, positioned at the natural crossing point between the Delaware Valley's two shores. Both the county and city took their name from Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, a British judge, politician, and civil libertarian who opposed Parliamentary taxation of the colonies and openly supported the American colonial cause during the years leading to independence. Once a premier industrial center whose factories ~~helped shape~~ the ~~modern American economy~~, Camden suffered enormously in the latter half of the twentieth century as manufacturers relocated, taking jobs, population, and tax revenue with them. ~~The~~ city struggled with severe poverty, violent crime, and heavy environmental burdens for decades. In ~~recent years~~, a ~~combination of policing~~ restructuring~~, targeted tax incentives, and sustained~~ investment in education and healthcare has ~~produced~~ measurable improvements in ~~public safety and~~ economic activity.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden, New Jersey — Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia \|url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/camden-new-jersey/ \|work=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia \|date=2023-12-05 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>		'''Camden''' is a city in [[Camden County, New Jersey\|Camden County]], in the U.S. state of [[New Jersey]], situated on the eastern bank of the [[Delaware River]] directly across from [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. The city was incorporated in 1828 and named county seat when Camden County separated from [[Gloucester County, New Jersey\|Gloucester County]] in 1844. For generations it served as the commercial heart of South Jersey, positioned at the natural crossing point between the Delaware Valley's two shores. Both the county and the city took their name from Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, a British judge, politician, and civil libertarian who opposed Parliamentary taxation of the colonies and openly supported the American colonial cause during the years leading to independence. Once a premier industrial center whose factories produced canned soup, recorded music, and warships for the Allied powers, Camden suffered enormously in the latter half of the twentieth century as manufacturers relocated, taking jobs, population, and tax revenue with them. As a result, the city struggled with severe poverty, violent crime, and heavy environmental burdens for decades. In 2013, the city's police department was disbanded and replaced with a county-level force, a restructuring that drew national attention as crime rates fell sharply in the years that followed. Sustained investment in education and healthcare has contributed to further measurable improvements in economic activity.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden, New Jersey — Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia \|url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/camden-new-jersey/ \|work=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia \|date=2023-12-05 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>

	Camden's 2020 Census population was 71,791, a significant decline from its peak of approximately 124,555 in 1950, reflecting the demographic contraction that accompanied deindustrialization across many northeastern American cities.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden city, New Jersey — U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts \|url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/camdencitynewjersey \|work=U.S. Census Bureau \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>		Camden's 2020 Census population was 71,791, a significant decline from its peak of approximately 124,555 in 1950, reflecting the demographic contraction that accompanied deindustrialization across many northeastern American cities.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden city, New Jersey — U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts \|url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/camdencitynewjersey \|work=U.S. Census Bureau \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>
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	== Early History and Settlement ==		== Early History and Settlement ==

	Camden's ~~story~~ begins with the [[Lenape]] people, who had inhabited the Delaware Valley for thousands of years before European contact. The Lenape called the region home across a broad network of villages and seasonal camps along both banks of the river they knew as ''Lenapewihittuk''. European encroachment began formally when the Dutch West India Company built Fort Nassau in 1626 at the confluence of Big Timber Creek and the Delaware River. Throughout the 1600s, Dutch, Swedish, and English interests competed along the Delaware to control the region's profitable fur trade, with the English ultimately consolidating authority after the conquest of New Netherland in 1664.<ref>{{cite web \|title=History of Camden County, NJ \|url=https://www.camdencounty.com/enjoy-camden-county/history/ \|work=Camden County, NJ Official Website \|date=2024-07-30 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>		Camden's history begins with the [[Lenape]] people, who had inhabited the Delaware Valley for thousands of years before European contact. The Lenape called the region home across a broad network of villages and seasonal camps along both banks of the river they knew as ''Lenapewihittuk''. They were a matrilineal people organized into three clans, the Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf, and they maintained extensive trade networks throughout the mid-Atlantic region long before Europeans arrived. European encroachment began formally when the Dutch West India Company built Fort Nassau in 1626 at the confluence of Big Timber Creek and the Delaware River. Throughout the 1600s, Dutch, Swedish, and English interests competed along the Delaware to control the region's profitable fur trade, with the English ultimately consolidating authority after the conquest of New Netherland in 1664. The cumulative effect on the Lenape was devastating. Disease, displacement, and the steady erosion of their land base reduced their numbers and broke apart the communities that had organized life along the river for millennia. Descendants of the Delaware Valley Lenape are today represented by several federally recognized tribal nations, including the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, both based in Oklahoma following forced relocations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<ref>{{cite web \|title=History of Camden County, NJ \|url=https://www.camdencounty.com/enjoy-camden-county/history/ \|work=Camden County, NJ Official Website \|date=2024-07-30 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>

	William Cooper built a home in 1681 near where the Cooper River meets the Delaware and called the settlement Pyne Point. That was the year before William Penn founded Philadelphia across the river. Settlement grew gradually, drawn largely from Quaker communities fleeing religious persecution in England. The legal foundation for this migration was the Concessions and Agreements of 1677, a document drafted by West Jersey proprietors including Penn that guaranteed religious tolerance and representative governance for settlers. Not until 1773 did Jacob Cooper, a descendant of William Cooper, formally plat a town site and establish the ferry crossing that would grow into the city's commercial center.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden NJ History and Broader South Jersey Information \|url=https://camdenhistory.com/ \|work=Camden History \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>		William Cooper built a home in 1681 near where the Cooper River meets the Delaware and called the settlement Pyne Point. That was the year before William Penn founded Philadelphia across the river. Settlement grew gradually, drawn largely from Quaker communities fleeing religious persecution in England. The legal foundation for this migration was the Concessions and Agreements of 1677, a document drafted by West Jersey proprietors including Penn that guaranteed religious tolerance and representative governance for settlers. Not until 1773 did Jacob Cooper, a descendant of William Cooper, formally plat a town site and establish the ferry crossing that would grow into the city's commercial center.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden NJ History and Broader South Jersey Information \|url=https://camdenhistory.com/ \|work=Camden History \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>
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	The state of New Jersey intervened directly in 2002, installing its own chief operating officer to manage day-to-day city operations and committing $175 million to attract new business and fund a comprehensive planning process aimed at bringing reinvestment and stabilizing the tax base. Seven years passed. The structural deficit remained largely intact. State intervention helped prevent complete municipal collapse but didn't resolve the underlying economic conditions that produced the fiscal crisis in the first place.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden, New Jersey \|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Camden-New-Jersey \|work=Encyclopædia Britannica \|date=2026-02-09 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>		The state of New Jersey intervened directly in 2002, installing its own chief operating officer to manage day-to-day city operations and committing $175 million to attract new business and fund a comprehensive planning process aimed at bringing reinvestment and stabilizing the tax base. Seven years passed. The structural deficit remained largely intact. State intervention helped prevent complete municipal collapse but didn't resolve the underlying economic conditions that produced the fiscal crisis in the first place.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden, New Jersey \|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Camden-New-Jersey \|work=Encyclopædia Britannica \|date=2026-02-09 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>

	Environmental conditions compounded these challenges. Camden is documented as one of the most environmentally burdened communities in New Jersey, carrying concentrations of industrial contamination, diesel truck traffic from port operations, and legacy pollution from decades of manufacturing. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's environmental justice mapping identifies Camden as among the state's highest-burden communities by multiple indicators, including air quality, proximity to hazardous waste sites, and rates of asthma and other pollution-related health conditions. These burdens don't exist separately from poverty. They reinforce it, raising healthcare costs, reducing quality of life, and making the city less attractive to the investment needed for recovery.~~<ref>{{cite web \|title=Camden Water Trail: Connecting a City to Its Rivers \|url=https://www.fws.gov/story/camden-water-trail-connecting-city-its-rivers \|work=~~U.S. ~~Fish & Wildlife Service \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>~~		Environmental conditions compounded these challenges. Camden is documented as one of the most environmentally burdened communities in New Jersey, carrying concentrations of industrial contamination, diesel truck traffic from port operations, and legacy pollution from decades of manufacturing. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's environmental justice mapping identifies Camden as among the state's highest-burden communities by multiple indicators, including air quality, proximity to hazardous waste sites, and rates of asthma and other pollution-related health conditions. These burdens don't exist separately from poverty. They reinforce it, raising healthcare costs, reducing quality of life, and making the city less attractive to the investment needed for recovery. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's EJScreen tool, which scores communities by cumulative environmental burden, consistently places Camden census tracts in the top percentiles nationally for indicators including particulate matter, proximity to Risk Management Plan facilities, and wastewater discharge. Advocacy organizations including the South Jersey Legal Services and local community groups have pursued environmental justice claims before state regulators, arguing that siting decisions for waste transfer stations and industrial operations disproportionately burdened Camden's predominantly low-income and minority population.<ref>{{cite web \|title=EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool \|url=https://www

	~~== Policing Reform ==~~

	~~Camden~~'s ~~crime crisis became a national story~~ by ~~the early 2010s. In 2012~~, ~~the city recorded 67 homicides and 172 shooting victims. That gave~~ Camden ~~a murder rate more than 18 times~~ the ~~national average~~, ~~according~~ to ~~the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program~~, and ~~earned it~~ the ~~designation of America's most dangerous city. County officials told CNN~~ that ~~within~~ Camden's ~~nine square miles~~ and ~~among roughly 75,000 residents, there were more than 170 open-air drug markets operating in 2013~~.<ref>{{cite web \|title=~~Camden, N.J. Disbanded Its Police Force. Here's What Happened Next.~~ \|url=https://www~~.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-city-disbanded-its-police-force-here-s-what-n1231677 \|work=NBC News \|date=2020-06-22 \|access-date=2026-02-25}}</ref>~~

	~~May 2~~

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