Bebout said the number of calls originating from the track has gone down in recent years. There was a 1985 murder in which a racetrack groom admitted shooting her ex-boyfriend. These days, he said, disturbances could be drunken or rowdy track patrons or fights among backstretch employees. The number of violent crimes has never been significant, with 58 reported between 1982 and 1996, and has decreased since 1992. Juvenile arrests for violent crimes have followed a similar pattern.
Violent crimes are murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
In 1996, there were two robberies and two aggravated assaults. One of the rare moments of violence this year was a fight among carnival workers in which two men were treated for stab wounds. Like its neighboring towns of Monmouth Beach, Long Branch and West Long Branch, the borough has had a problem in recent months with a rash of thefts from automobiles. Police in those towns all have reported thefts of automobiles or of items inside them, and have made several arrests of juveniles. Under an agreement reached between the borough and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns Monmouth Park, the authority pays for a two-man bicycle patrol at the track on opening day, July 4 and the day of the Haskell Invitational, which is Sunday.