May 9, 2019 - Atlantic City Citizens Advisory Board Holds Quarterly Meeting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 9, 2019

Meeting Provides Members of the Public with an Opportunity to Ask Questions and Offer Comments about the Board and its Work

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – The Atlantic City Citizens Advisory Board met yesterday in the City Council Chambers of City Hall for its first quarterly meeting to update the public on its work since its inception in February 2019 and to take questions and comments about its efforts to foster communication between the community and Atlantic City Police Department. 

Prior to yesterday’s quarterly public meeting, the Citizens Advisory Board held three monthly meetings in executive session during which members received an orientation about their duties and responsibilities, elected officers, adopted bylaws, and learned about the Atlantic City Police Department’s (ACPD) internal affairs process and early warning system that identifies police officers with patterns of improper behavior. Members also received information about the Atlantic City Municipal Court diversion program. 

“The Citizens Advisory Board has hit the ground running and is steadily becoming a place where issues between the community and city police can be effectively communicated and resolved,” said Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. “It is great to see this new board already actively engaging with the public and positioning itself as a resource for public safety-related information. I look forward to seeing the Board continue on this path of becoming a strong partner in collaborative problem-solving.” 

“My fellow board members and I are committed to deepening the trust between the community and police department and being a positive force in our city,” said Joyce Mollineaux, president of the Citizens Advisory Board. “We thank everyone who took the time to attend our first public meeting. We will use the feedback we received to help us decide what areas we should focus on so we can have the greatest impact.” 

At yesterday’s quarterly meeting, the Citizens Advisory Board and the public also got a brief overview of the Neighborhood Coordination Officer (NCO) program that the police department will launch this month. Through the program, the police department will assign veteran officers to the city’s six wards to engage with people in the neighborhoods, address quality-of-life issues, monitor crime trends, and get problems solved. The NCO program will be comprehensively introduced to the community later this month. 

The Citizens Advisory Board includes 15 members who are residents of Atlantic City. Six appointments, one each, came from the five civic associations and the Boardwalk Committee; three appointments each came from the Mayor and City Council, and one appointment came from the Atlantic City Board of Education. Two appointments of youth members, ages 18 to 25, were made by the majority vote of the other members of the Board. All members are serving a minimum of one year. 

The Board was established based on a recommendation from the Atlantic City Transition Report, which was issued in September 2018 to provide a framework for returning Atlantic City to local control. The purpose of the Citizens Advisory Board is to provide citizens with a regular channel for communicating with the ACPD Chief of Police and to facilitate problem-solving between the community and the ACPD. 

For more information about the City of Atlantic City, visit www.cityofatlanticcity.org. 

 For more information about DCA, visit https://nj.gov/dca/ or follow the Department on social media: