House Votes To Restore COPS Hirings, As Dems Promised
BY JOHN TOSCANO

The legislation, sponsored by Congressmember Anthony Weiner and called the C.O.P.S. Improvement Act (or COPS), will put an estimated 2,969 more cops on the streets in New York City to fight crime and terrorism over the next six years.

One of the most successful national anti-crime programs was resurrected last week by the Democrat-controlled Congress, fulfilling a promise made by the party in last year's elections.

The legislation, sponsored by Congressmember Anthony Weiner and called the C.O.P.S. Improvement Act (or COPS), will put an estimated 2,969 more cops on the streets in New York City to fight crime and terrorism over the next six years.

Nationwide, the proposed new law will swell police forces in large and small cities by 50,000 more police officers.

Weiner (D- Queens/Brooklyn) stated in a release that the COPS program, created in 1994, had been one of the most successful law enforcement programs in the nation's history, putting 120,000 more officers on the nation's streets, including 6,946 added to the New York Police Department.

Funded at more than $1 billion a year near the end of the Clinton administration, Weiner said, the hiring portion of COPS has been "zeroed out" under President George W. Bush.

But now, with the FBI reporting violent crime on the rise, the House legislation will breathe new life into the COPS program, Weiner said.

Congressmember Joseph Crowley (D- Queens/The Bronx) also hailed passage of the major anti-crime legislation.

"It's very simple," said Crowley. "Having more police officers means less crime. That is why I supported passage of legislation to continue the highly successful COPS hiring grants initiative."

The Elmhurst lawmaker explained, "To date, the COPS program has enabled the New York Police Department to put an additional 7,000 officers on the beat. The city's crime rate has dropped as a result, and the proposal I supported will ensure that our police force is able to maintain the safety and security of our neighborhoods and families."

Under the original Community Oriented Policing Services program passed in 1994, the 7,000 additional cops were added to the NYPD at a cost of $638 million in ensuing years, until Bush and the Republicans refused to fund it.

With passage of the proposed act, the city will likely receive another almost $195 million over the next six years.

Weiner said that, according to the Government Accounting Office (GAO), between 1998 and 2000, COPS grants were responsible for reducing crime by up to 225,000 incidents, one-third of which were violent crimes.

Weiner said that at the same time that Bush eliminated the crime-fighting program from the budget last year, "violent crime has spiked across the nation".

Earlier this year, Weiner cited a Police Executive Research Forum report that said violent crimes rose by double-digit percentages over the last two years. This study was backed by FBI stats released last December, Weiner said, which show that crime is growing in the U.S. for the first time since the early 1990s.

During the first six months of 2006, homicides, assaults and other violent offenses grew by 4 percent, and robberies, which are often interpreted as a precursor to more serious crime, jumped by 10 percent nationwide.

Crowley, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, explained that Bush depleted funding for the COPS program from more than $1 billion a year in the late 1990s to $198 million in 2003 to $10 million in 2005.

Then in 2006, Crowley continued, the Republican-led Congress completely eliminated COPS altogether.

Crowley also noted the Weiner-sponsored bill restores COPS by authorizing $600 million per year for hiring grants for the next year. In addition, the bill specifies that these grants can be used to hire and train officers to perform intelligence, antiterror or homeland security duties.