ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — While millions of people visit Atlantic City each year, a longstanding concern many of them have voiced is whether they'll be safe once they get there.

Crime — and the perception of it — has long plagued the seaside gambling resort, even while statistics show crime had been decreasing for years before an uptick in 2019.

How to fight crime and reassure visitors it's safe to bring their money here is a key issue in the race for the next mayor of Atlantic City.

In a debate held Tuesday night, Democratic incumbent Marty Small and Republican challenger Tom Forkin both outlined plans to provide additional recreation and employment opportunities to young people in the city.

Some visitors and analysts say run-down neighborhoods, aggressive panhandlers and drug dealers and prostitutes contribute to a perception of risk. Last year, citing those and other concerns, Jim Allen, head of the global Hard Rock company, said Atlantic City was “going in the wrong direction.”

Small announced a program that would enlist ex-offenders to go into neighborhoods to talk with young people and intervene in situations before serious problems arise. The program would be called One Neighborhood Evolution.

“The city of Atlantic City will have boots on the ground to do preventative measures, people who have had checkered pasts but who are now fully rehabilitated, to go into these communities," Small said.

Small added he supports increasing funding for the police department, adding “I supported my fine men and women in blue” during an outbreak of vandalism and theft from downtown outlet malls in May that eventually led to 95 arrests after a protest march turned violent.

Many questions remained unanswered about the program, including when it would start, how many people it would include, how they would be selected and trained, and whether they would be paid for their efforts. Small did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.

Forkin said he “would immediately hire more police officers.”

A department spokesman said the city currently has 277 officers, which Forkin said is far below the levels of the 1990s.

“The city's negative perception has been there for several years,” he said during the debate. “We need more police on the streets. People will not come here if the city is filthy and there's unmanageable crime up on the Boardwalk and pacific Avenue. Just drive down the street on Pacific Avenue: you have junkies walking around; it looks like zombie-land.”

Forkin said he would fight to retain the various taxes collected in Atlantic City but given to the state including luxury, hotel room and parking taxes, a figure he put at $90 million in recent years. That money would be used to help hire additional officers.

The winner of next month's election will serve a one-year unexpired term, and would presumably seek a full four-year term in November 2021.

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Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC