After a continued uptick in illegal dumping, squatting, and graffiti, Camden County officials are looking to crack down on those issues and other quality-of-life crimes throughout the city.
The push to catch criminals comes less than a month after Mayor Vic Carstarphen and the Board of Commissioners held a press conference outside a gas station on Admiral Wilson Boulevard, which has become a haven for illegal activities, according to police.
The property had been cleaned and the structures fixed, but nearly a month later, on Friday, it was vandalized again, police said.
The suspect, Donald Park III, from Cherry Hill Township, was arrested not once but twice after spray-painting graffiti on the gas station, according to police. Christina Wilson of Palmyra was also on-site and arrested.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Police said initially, Park and Wilson were arrested that afternoon and charged with defiant trespassing. Park was then charged with criminal mischief, and Wilson had a second charge of conspiracy.
Four hours later that same day, police said Park was arrested again at the same location. Park's vehicle was impounded, and he was again charged with criminal mischief and defiant trespassing. He was remanded to the Camden County Jail.
"The City of Camden is not a dumping ground to deface property and just feel the need to come do what you want to do," Carstarphen said during a press conference Tuesday with the Camden County Police Department.
In a news release, Chief Gabriel Rodriguez of the Camden County Police Department discussed the new "eye in the sky technology" being used to catch suspects such as Park who are undermining the city's 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.”
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
