Editing Teaneck, New Jersey (section)

===Crime===
According to the FBI's 2016 [[Uniform Crime Reports|Uniform Crime Report]], there were 497 crimes in the township in 2016 (vs. 490 in 2015), of which 72 were violent crimes (vs. 50 in 2015) and 425 non-violent crimes (440 in 2015). The 2016 total crime rate per thousand residents was 12.1 (vs. 12.0 in 2015). The violent crime rate per thousand residents for the State New Jersey was 2.2 and the non-violent crime rate 10.4.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.njsp.org/ucr/2016/pdf/2016a_uniform_crime_report.pdf|title=Uniform Crime Report: State of New Jersey 2016}}</ref>

Gang violence hit Teaneck in July 2006 with the death of Ricky Lee Smith Jr., a teenager shot outside a house party by a member of the [[Bloods]] gang who had attended the party. In June 2007, the Township Council approved the hiring of five additional officers after the Chief of Police had requested the addition of 14 new officers to Teaneck's existing 98-member police force to establish a gang unit.<ref>Fallon, Scott. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-141460165.html "Vigil recalls a life ended far too soon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104160729/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-141460165.html |date=2012-11-04 }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', July 10, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009. "Smith, 15, was shot dead by then 17-year-old Zechariah Eaton after a late night house party had broken up. Eaton and three alleged members of the Bloods street gang who also attended the party got involved in one of several scuffles that broke out in front of the house at the end of the night, police said at the time."</ref><ref>Aberback, Brian. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-139264817.html "Chief wants anti-gang unit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104160743/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-139264817.html |date=2012-11-04 }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', May 10, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009.</ref><ref>Salazar, Carolyn and Tsai, Jason. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-141752662.html "Report: Police hype gangs to score funding"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104160750/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-141752662.html |date=2012-11-04 }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', July 19, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009. "Teaneck recently approved hiring five more officers to form an anti-gang unit. Police are seeking $500,000 in funding for the initiative, making them one of several departments that are looking to tap state and federal grants. 'We're definitely seeing an increase in gang activity over the years,' Teaneck Police Chief Paul Tiernan said Wednesday. 'But we realize that we're not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We're also doing a lot of outreach efforts and prevention efforts.' Retired Teaneck Officer Fred Greene said he, for one, isn't convinced. 'They are hyping the gang problem,' said Greene, who attended a recent gang presentation in town. 'It really has to do with getting more equipment and manpower than having an actual problem.'"</ref>

Teaneck has received attention in the media due to sexual crimes committed against minors by New Jersey educators. Joseph White, former principal of Teaneck High School, pleaded guilty to official child endangerment in June 2006 and was sentenced to one year in prison. White had been charged in 2002 with fondling a 17-year-old student and was subsequently acquitted.<ref>Markos, Kibret. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-145698344.html "Ex-principal in Teaneck gets 1 year"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104160757/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-145698344.html |date=2012-11-04 }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', November 3, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009.</ref> James Darden, an award-winning former eighth grade teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, was charged with sexual assault and misconduct in June 2007. He pleaded guilty in December 2007 to a charge of [[aggravated sexual assault]].<ref>Markos, Kibret. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-147310590.html "Teaneck teacher admits classroom sex with student"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104160807/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-147310590.html |date=2012-11-04 }}, ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', December 18, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009.</ref>  In 2008, James Darden was sentenced to eight years in prison, after admitting to having a two-year sexual relationship with a student that started when she was 13.<ref>{{Cite web |last=S.E.S.A.M.E |date=2012-09-02 |title=Honors teacher from Montclair charged with sexual assault of student |url=https://www.sesamenet.org/post/2012/09/01/honors-teacher-from-montclair-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-student |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=sesame |language=en}}</ref> In 2018 another incident took place: A substitute teacher was charged with sexual assault. He was ordered to surrender his teacher's license and was sentenced to probation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/crime/2018/10/12/teaneck-nj-teacher-accused-touching-student-gets-probation/1605348002/|title=Teaneck teacher accused of touching student gets probation, assault charges dropped|last=Nobile|first=Tom|website=North Jersey|language=en|access-date=2019-10-10}}</ref>

The December 1975 murder of Jean Diggs and her four children has never been solved.<ref>Sullivan, Ronald. [https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/08/archives/5-murders-make-violence-a-teaneck-reality-teaneck-murders-make.html "5 Murders Make Violence a Teaneck Reality"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 8, 1975. Accessed October 8, 2019. "The murder of a mother and her four children plunged this suburban Bergen County township and the communities that surround it into deep and incredulous shock today. The bodies of Jean Diggs and her four children were discovered late yesterday shot to death in their comfortable stucco and brick home here."</ref> Police reported in 1977 that they had been unable to identify a perpetrator after two years and thousands of hours spent investigating the crime.<ref>Hanley, Robert. [https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/03/archives/new-jersey-pages-police-still-have-no-clues-in-killing-of-5-in.html "Police Still Have No Clues in Killing Of 5 in Bergen Family 2 Years Ago"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 3, 1977. Accessed July 12, 2011. "Two years after Jean Diggs and her four children were murdered with a 22-caliber rifle late at night in their three-story home in this Bergen County suburb, the authorities acknowledged today that thousands of investigatory man-hours had produced virtually nothing."</ref>

A pair of killings hit Teaneck in 2010, with council watcher Joan Davis and software engineer Robert Cantor both killed in their homes, in cases that had not been solved in more than a year after the incidents.<ref>Rimbach, Jean. [http://www.northjersey.com/news/122790344_Unsolved_killings_haunt_Teaneck.html "Unsolved killings haunt Teaneck"], ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', May 28, 2011. Accessed December 9, 2011. "Windows of the charred Elm Avenue home where Robert Cantor lived and died are boarded up. An orange sign declaring the house unsafe for occupancy is stuck on the padlocked front door and fading rhododendron blossoms hover over an untended lawn.... Nearly three months after Cantor was shot and his two-story house set ablaze, there has been no arrest in the case. Meanwhile, the August slaying of longtime political watchdog Joan Davis, who was found stabbed, hands bound in her burning home, also remains unsolved."</ref> A conviction for the murder of Robert Cantor was made in 2015.<ref>Pries, Allison. [https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2016/02/25/jailhouse-interview-killer-in-lovetriangle-murder-of-teaneck-man-breaks-silence/94515580/ "Jailhouse interview: Killer in love-triangle murder of Teaneck man breaks silence"], ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', February 25, 2016. Accessed October 8, 2019. "It's in that bedroom, with the small window and the red and white down comforter, that Tung shot Robert Cantor in the back of the head in March 2011, doused him with grain alcohol and set the Teaneck house ablaze, murdering the 59-year-old software engineer, a jury determined late last year after a two-month trial in state Superior Court in Hackensack."</ref>

Based on a data analysis of 18 years, it is estimated that crime will continue to decline. In 2016, the city's crime rate was 55.76% lower than the national average of violent crime and&nbsp; 28.3% lower than New Jersey's crime rate. The crime rate in Teaneck Township was&nbsp; 57.79% lower than the national property crime average and&nbsp; 33.03% lower than the property crime rate in New Jersey.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/new-jersey/teaneck-township.html|title=Teaneck Township Crime Statistics: New Jersey (NJ) - CityRating.com|website=www.cityrating.com|language=en|access-date=2019-10-10}}</ref>