AREA — Last week, Senator Jon Bramnick of the 21st Legislative District joined several representatives from the law enforcement community for a frank discussion about public safety and crime prevention in and around Union County.

The senator was joined by Bob Weck, the former chief of the Summit Police Department; Anthony Ambrose, the former director of public safety for the City of Newark; and former New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino at the Summit Elks Lodge for a two-hour panel discussion that covered everything from bail reform to the recent regional upswing in property crime.

The event, sponsored by the Summit Republicans and held on Thursday evening, was attended by numerous representatives and elected officials, including several current and past members of the Summit Council, Assemblywoman Michele Matsikoudis, and Ruthi Byrne, whose husband, Brendan Byrne, served as the governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.

“The point of this discussion is to put party politics aside so we can focus on the issues,” said Nick Curiale, chair of the Summit Republicans. “Every town in the state is dealing with the same challenges when it comes to crime and public safety.”

Property crimes like car thefts, burglaries and home invasions have been on the rise in the region for some time. And while there may be no one right way forward, Mr. Ambrose said Thursday, strong communication between public officials, police departments and elected representatives will always play an essential role.

“Chief Weck and I always had a good working relationship. We knew that the cars that were getting lifted from Summit were turning up down in Newark, so we made it a point to keep each other in the loop,” he said. “You have to know what’s going on in your own community. If you’re just sitting around in the station all day waiting for the phone to ring, you’re just not going to be that productive.”

According to information provided by the state Attorney General, 11,989 cars were stolen in New Jersey in 2019. By 2022, that number had risen to 15,650.

And while car thefts and burglaries are nothing new, the “game,” Mr. Ambrose continued, has changed in recent years.

“The majority of car thefts in this state are happening because people are leaving their key fobs in their cars and not taking simple precautions to protect themselves,” Mr. Ambrose said, adding that car thieves have now started to seek out certain high-end models based on market demand. Many criminal organizations also are relying on juveniles to carry out the thefts since they are less likely than adult offenders to be severely penalized.

Affluent communities like Westfield, Summit and Berkeley Heights have been hit especially hard in recent months by car thefts, home break-ins and burglaries.

“A visible police department is more important now than it ever has been,” Chief Weck said. “If criminals are driving around in a community to scope it out ahead of time, they’re less likely to come back if they see an active police force.”

Community relationships, the chief continued, also play a major role in deterring would-be criminals.

“One of the things that we hear all the time from residents is, ‘I would have called, but I didn’t want to bother you.’ We have to do something to change that,” he said. “If you have a concern, or if you see something strange, don’t hesitate. Just call us. A community that trusts the police department and actively wants to cooperate with them gives us a lot of extra eyes and ears on the street, and that’s incredibly important.”

Earlier this year, Governor Phil Murphy signed off on a package of bills intended to curtail car thefts by, among other actions, making it ille- gal to possess certain tools that can be used to break into a locked vehicle and by imposing harsher penalties on repeat offenders.

Bill S-3777, signed in July, eliminates the presumption of pretrial release for defendants charged with certain motor vehicle theft offenses if they were arrested or convicted of a separate motor vehicle theft within the 90-day period preceding the charge. The bill serves as one of several amendments made to the state’s bail-reform package since changes were introduced back in 2017.

It is a step in the right direction, Senator Bramnick said Thursday, but it may not be enough.

“At this point, you have to assume that the criminals know more about what they can get away with than the police or the attorneys do,” Senator Bramnick said. “I think we still have some work to do in this area if we want to find the right balance.”

Mr. Porrino, who served as the state’s Attorney General from 2016 to 2018, said Thursday that while bail reform will likely always be a matter of some debate, the state has already instituted a number of positive changes under the new guidelines.

On January 1, 2017, the state shifted from its longstanding monetary-bail system to a more objective risk-based system that allows judges to examine each case individually.

“Bail reform has allowed us to take the most violent offenders off the streets, and it has helped us to reduce the number of people who had to sit in jail waiting to be heard on minor charges just because they couldn’t afford to bail themselves out. It’s much more equitable than it was,” Mr. Ambrose said. “It’s not a perfect system, and I think these types of repeat situations have proven that, but by and large, it has been a success.”