Early last week President Obama travelled to Camden to hold the city up as “a symbol of progress for the nation.” In 2012 the city’s violent crime rate was the highest in the country: 2,566 violent crimes for every 100,000 people, or 560 times the national average. The police chief described the murder rate as “somewhere between Honduras and Somalia.” The drug trade was the most vibrant economic activity in the city, bringing in $250 million annually. Researchers estimated that Camden was home to 175 open air drug markets, one for every 440 residents.

Two years later, a county police force replaced the city police and adopted a “community oriented” approach, increasing foot patrols and expanding community programming. Murders dropped 47 percent, and violent crime decreased 24 percent. Police operations dispersed 65 percent of the city’s drug markets.

This apparently self-evident success provided a backdrop for Obama’s public unveiling of the recommendations of his police reform task force. The most publicized of these reforms were the new restrictions on the type of military equipment police departments can receive.