It was Rasheen Peppers’ first day as a civilian after a 25-year career with the Newark Police Department. He had served as a beat cop, fugitive-hunting reality TV star and commander of the police district where he lives with his family, before retiring last month at the rank of captain at 48.
Dressed in a black cap and jacket with Newark Police logos on a sunny but chilly weekday afternoon, the 6ft, 280lb retired captain walked along Lyons Avenue in the southern part of the city, in front of the Ayan African hair salon, the Life-Giving Church of God storefront, the Faso supermarket with its halal meat and the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street.
He stopped at Ikeja African Market & Bakery. Inside the immaculately kept Nigerian grocery store, the shelves were overflowing with rice, yams, cassava flour and other staples from the West African republic. Princess Tinubu from Nigeria opened it last year. She smiled behind the counter and the thick plexiglass screen when Peppers pushed open the door and asked how things were going. They were fine, she told him.
“He’s a wonderful man,” said Tinubu, aware of Peppers’ retirement. “I’m not too happy about it.”
She’s not the only one.
At a time when law enforcement and elected officials routinely address community policing, Peppers’ visibility, compassion and willingness to engage with residents, business people and people at risk of committing crimes earned him the reputation of being its embodiment.
Now some in the South Ward fear losing a human bridge between the community and the police department.
“It’s bittersweet, because I think he still has something to do,” said Sandra Hughes, a member of the Historic Weequahic Neighborhood Association, a residents’ group. “With the approaches he’s taken here in the South Ward, I think in the long run we would have had great results in a neighborhood that has struggled for decades.”
Peppers’ departure became official on January 31. He said he retired because it became clear his leadership style was not what the department wanted.
“The way I chose to lead in my position was not aligned with others,” he said. “However, I am confident that the department ideally embraces the implementation of community policing.”
“Let me be clear,†he added, “I am not withdrawing from the Newark community. I plan to be an ongoing service to Newark and surrounding communities.
Asked to comment on Peppers’ departure, Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara praised him in an email as “a model of dedicated service to our new officers” and thanked him for his 25 years in the department.
O’Hara said community policing combined with violence reduction strategies has helped reduce crime in Newark by 58% since 2014, when Mayor Ras Baraka took office. He said other community policing measures included the assignment of two officers to focus solely on identifying the needs and concerns of each constituency.
Peppers has worked in the South Ward for the past decade, including commanding the 5th Ward’s 140 officers last year. His efforts to be visible and accessible have included frequent walks and countless one-on-one meetings.
During a series of “Captain’s Corner” events during the warmer months, Peppers used sidewalk rallies to talk about ongoing neighborhood issues and recent incidents, present oversized checks to community organizations or families in need, organize health checks and d other services, and throwing dance moves to music pumped through a PA system.
The United States Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services does not include dancing in its definition. The office defines community policing as “a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address immediate conditions that give rise to public safety concerns.”
But Peppers’ steps appear consistent with the kind of engagement that experts say is essential to effective community policing. It’s a philosophy that 42% of departments nationwide have adopted, with a much higher percentage among those in large urban areas, according to the nonprofit. National Police Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.
“For some, just hearing the concerns of communities can be seen as community policing, but that really isn’t what it’s supposed to be,” said foundation president Jim Burch, in an email. “As the U.S. Department of Justice reflects, true community policing requires us not only to work together regularly and proactively, but also to build relationships of trust and mutual respect.”
An example of the community’s trust in Peppers followed a Dec. 30 incident involving police and a group of young men who questioned why officers had detained young people on a street near Weequahic Park.
After authorities arrested several of them, a South Ward community activist who knew of Peppers’ reputation contacted him for any information he might have about their status.
“I don’t know of any other officer I would have trusted like that,” said Vines, 31, who runs the Earn to Learn program at Weequahic High School. “I always try to make him stay.”
Mark Wright, a 44-year-old South Ward resident whose son wears his hair in dreadlocks, said Peppers’ refusal to judge others on their appearance caused Wright to soften his view of all police officers.
“Most people in Newark with dreadlocks, they’re considered a gang member,” Wright said. “But, if it’s Peppers, he’s not going to treat you like that.” And now I look at the cops and give them a chance.
On Lyons Avenue, men and women walking or standing on the worn concrete sidewalk warmly greeted Peppers as he passed.
“Hey, Pep! said more than one, using the nickname familiar to locals and fans of the A&E reality series, “Manhunter: Fugitive Task Force”, in which Peppers had a recurring role in the late 2000s.
Some asked him for money and he handed a bill to an older man. But he said no to Brandon Servers. Waiters, 27, was a point guard for the Newark Central High School Blue Devils who graduated in 2012. Now, according to his physiological condition, he can barely control his arms and legs, and he has neither work or permanent address.
Peppers said he wouldn’t give servers money because it’s not food he’d be spending it on. So the two went to a bodega, and Peppers gave the cashier some cash. He told her it was for whatever the waiters ordered at the deli counter and to save the change for the next time the waiters stopped by.
Of Peppers, Waiters said, “He makes sure we’re safe. I love it.”
Peppers said he had tried several times to get the servers off the streets and put them into programs that might prevent him from doing so, with no success. He was silent for a while after that.
Peppers, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, said he wasn’t sure what to expect, though it would likely be law enforcement-related. maybe teaching or consulting.
He said his retirement was “bittersweet”, leaving him sorry to say goodbye to his career, his colleagues and his official responsibility to the people of the 5th arrondissement. But he also feels a sense of accomplishment for serving his hometown in the style he thought was best.
“Having the opportunity to try to change the image between the police and the community, that was one of my main reasons for staying here, never leaving,” Peppers said over coffee at King’s. Family Restaurant on Lyons Avenue, a favorite haunt, where he stopped a team of burglars shortly after arriving on the beat.
In Never Leaving, Peppers spoke of the county and town where he was born and raised and continues to live with his family in the South Ward.
“I just felt like when we work here for…an underserved community, and I make a decent living, I buy a house here, I pay taxes here, [I can] take the same money that I take from this community, put it back in this community, rather than going somewhere else, to another community, where they probably don’t even want me there,†he said. . “So I thought it was my civic duty.”
“I also wanted to be in a neighborhood where kids can have someone to look up to,” he added. “Because if everyone here who is successful, career-minded or purpose-driven is leaving, then what do the kids have to look up to?”
It is a case in point. Peppers earned $196,244 in 2019, including salary, overtime and other service compensation, according to NJ Advance Media. Paycheck police database. That’s compared to Newark’s median household income of $35,199 for the same period, according to Census data.
And he does not hide his success, nor his taste for the good life. He drives a late-model BMW and often spends Sunday afternoons relaxing with a cigar and a glass of bourbon at his local smoking club, Green Room Cigars. He tastes like expensive cologne and likes to quote Socrates.
You’ll also find him in the cereal aisle of the supermarket, where he says his regular visibility has also helped his community policing work.
“There’s nothing quite like going to the same ShopRite as the people you serve, and you walk in there and we’re fighting over the same box of Fruity Pebbles, is there?” he said laughing, even though his point was serious. “It changes the relationship. That young man or woman that I might have to go around the corner and say, “You have to move out today,” they’ll respect that. Because, you know, ‘We see this guy at ShopRite, we see him at Pathmark.’
No one knows Jersey better than NJcom. Sign up to receive news alerts straight to your inbox.
Steve Strunsky can be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
