Take note Steve...

Dan Ivers | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

EAST ORANGE ? Over the last three months, officials in East Orange have handed out about 150 signs to residents scattered around the city.

Emblazoned with a friendly slogan ?Drive Like Your Kids Live Here?, they are just one part of a wide-ranging effort to crack down on the lead-footed drivers that often drive complaints to police or City Hall.

While speeding is a common bugaboo for residents of virtually every community in the country, the signs mark something of a new era in this gritty town of about 65,000. A decade ago, a full-fledged campaign against traffic offenses would have been little more than a pipe dream ? a fool?s errand in a community beset with street gangs and violent crime.

?Not with the crime rate we had at that time,? said William C. Robinson, a 31-year veteran who became police chief in 2011. ?But we have time now to focus on different things.?

In 2003, 22 people were murdered in East Orange. Street gangs conducted business in a number of open-air drug markets, and burglary, assault and auto theft numbers were soaring.

Since then, however, the city has seen a steady decrease in crime of ever variety. The overall rate has fallen more than 70 percent during that time, and is now roughly in line with the national average.

Police have counted no more than six murders in any year since 2010, and have seen only two thus far in 2014, both of which were quickly solved.

More