NEWARK — A group of teenagers drove from bus stop to bus stop in Newark's South Ward in August, attacking and robbing six people in a span of 10 minutes.

In February, an Essex County freeholder was carjacked at gunpoint near his home. Days later, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union was mugged outside of his office.

And just last month, a mob of juveniles swarmed an off-duty federal agent in the city’s Ironbound section, pummeling the man during an attempted robbery until he pulled out his sidearm and opened fire.

Hundreds of people — 1,759 to be exact — have suffered the same fate this year in Newark, which has experienced a surge in robberies that is as random as it is violent.

Newark has seen a 23 percent jump in robberies in 2013, and the city is on pace to have its highest annual robbery total since 1999, according to Uniform Crime reports compiled by the State Police and city crime data.

Strongarm cell phone thefts have risen across the country as smart phones have become a necessary appendage to nearly everyone, with police in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles all reporting marked increases in cell phone thefts as recently as last year, according to experts and published reports. But in New Jersey, Newark seems to be the only large city reporting a major uptick in robberies this year. As of Sept. 30, robberies were down in Camden, Paterson, Jersey City and Trenton compared to 2012, according to uniform crime reports.

As of Sept. 30, there had been 1,759 robberies in Newark, up from 1,435 during the same period in 2012, according to Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio. Robberies have risen steadily in Newark since 2010, as carjackings and cell phone thefts became popular and profitable crimes, records show.

'EVERYBODY HAS PHONES'

More than a third of this year’s robberies were cell phone thefts, according to DeMaio, who said there is a simple rationale behind the spike.

Everyone has a smart phone, and most people make a criminal’s job easier by walking around with phones in hand, distracted by Facebook or fantasy football.

"It’s something that’s in any part of the city because everybody has phones," he said. "Walking down the street with the phone in your ear, unaware of your surroundings, you’re making yourself a target."

Newark is on pace to suffer its highest annual robbery total since 1999, according to city crime data and uniform crime reports generated by the N.J. State Police.

The stolen phones have a resale value of roughly $200, and most cell phone robberies are over in seconds, DeMaio said. Your average thief could easily turn a thousand dollar profit after just a few minutes of work.

The surge has caused alarm among residents because of the randomness of the crime, community leaders said. While the gun violence that plagues Newark is often aimed at drug dealers or gang members, robberies can happen to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

"It is a problem. It’s quite noticeable. There is, I call it, a fear factor," said Bishop Jethro James of Paradise Baptist Church. "Many of our elderly, they won’t come out at night at all because of that."

Ironically, manufacturers’ efforts to reduce car theft helped drive the increase in carjackings, which are categorized as robberies, DeMaio said. It’s much easier for criminals to steal a car once the key is in the ignition, he added. Carjackings have risen in Newark every year since 2009.

LAYOFF EFFECT?

The city’s annual robbery total hovered between 1,300 and 1,400 from 2003 to 2009, according to uniform crime reports. But in 2010, that number jumped up to 1,655, and increased by another 23 percent to 2,038 in 2011.

Newark is averaging 195 robberies per month this year, meaning the city is on pace to see more than 2,300 robberies in 2013, marking the city’s worst annual total since 1999.

Since robberies are crimes of opportunity and often deterred by active patrols, experts said the surge could be a consequence of Newark’s massive police layoffs.

"This is precisely the kind of targeted enforcement that often must be sacrificed by police executives when they are faced with manpower shortages that strip them of the ability to move resources into a specific area for a specific crime problem," said Wayne Fisher, a professor at the Rutgers Police Institute.

The possible connection between the robbery spike and weakened patrols prompted an outcry from the four city leaders jockeying to replace Cory Booker as Newark’s mayor next year. If elected, North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos said he would offer increased financial incentives to officers who choose to work patrol and discussed plans to open a new precinct in the city’s Central Ward last week. Former assistant attorney general and mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries said it has been "open season" for criminals who seek to commit street crimes ever since the city’s layoffs in 2010.

ANTI-CRIME STRATEGIES

Alexander Shalom knows first hand how fast the crimes can happen. Shalom, who serves as policy counsel for the state ACLU, was leaving the group’s offices in February when he was struck from behind by a teenager. As he traded punches with the assailant, his phone flew out of his hands and was scooped up by a second thief.

"Literally he hit me the one time, maybe swung at me one or two times," Shalom said. "I swung at him one or two times and that was the whole thing."

The entire incident lasted 10 seconds, Shalom said.

DeMaio said most of the robberies are committed by juvenile males, which caused other city leaders to called for more social programs and job opportunities to tamp down on the desire for the quick cash that drives robberies. South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka, who is also a mayoral candidate, said it’s not up to the police to prevent robberies.

"The strategy should begin with pre-entry, meaning all kinds of programs that we have to engage kids, and then involve the police," Baraka said. "People don’t call the police because they think they’re gonna get robbed. They call them after they get robbed."

Central Ward Councilman Darrin Sharif, also a candidate in the mayoral race, said the city must combine community involvement with increased police presence if they hope to make any long-term progress combating the robbery spike.

"If you don’t invest in people and the neighborhood you’re really just putting a Band-Aid on something you’re never going to solve," he said.

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