WASHINGTON, D.C. – With violent crimes on the rise across the country, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation today to restore a highly successful police hiring program that would place an additional 6,700 police officers on the streets of California, and would hire 50,000 additional officers nationwide over the next six years. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) joined a bipartisan majority in the House to pass the bill, H.R. 1700, known as the COPS Reauthorization Act. The legislation will now be sent to the Senate for consideration.

“Everyone knows that a key ingredient to reducing crime in our neighborhoods is to get more police officers walking the beat, and that's what our bill would help accomplish,” said Miller. “We know from past experience that federal tax dollars can be successfully used to leverage local agencies to hire more police officers and reduce crime. This program was unjustly terminated by past Congresses – leaving communities across the country without critical safety resources. The new Majority is committed to restoring this program and providing local law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to keep their neighborhoods safe.”

The COPS hiring grants program, originally created under President Clinton in 1994, was enormously successful and popular. From 1995 to 2005, the program helped local law enforcement agencies hire 117,000 additional police officers nationwide, which helped to reduce the crime rate across the country. During those 10 years, California received $1.2 billion in COPS hiring grants funding, enabling the state to hire an additional 15,707 police officers.

Independent studies showed that the COPS grants played a significant role in lowering the crime rate. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded that, "COPS-funded increases in sworn officers per capita were associated with declines in rates of total index crimes, violent crimes, and property crimes." According to the study, between 1998 and 2000, the hiring grants were responsible for reducing crimes by about 200,000 to 225,000 crimes - one third of which were violent.

Unfortunately, under President Bush, the Republican-led Congress sharply reduced the funding for COPS hiring grants, reducing funding from more than $1 billion a year in the late 1990s to $198 million in 2003 and to just $10 million in 2005. Then, in 2006, the Republican-led Congress completely eliminated the program.

“Our bill would restore the COPS hiring grants program, calling for funding to allow for the hiring of up to 50,000 new police officers over the next six years nationwide, including as many as 6,713 additional police officers in California,” said Miller.

Earlier this year, the Police Executive Research Forum, a prominent law enforcement association, released a report that found that violent crimes nationwide rose by double-digit percentages over the last two years. Among the cities surveyed, since 2005, 71 percent had an increase in homicides, 80 percent saw robberies rise, and 67 percent reported an increase in aggravated assaults with guns.

“Now is the time to restore the COPS program,” said Miller. “By authorizing COPS hiring grants, COPS technology grants, and community prosecutor grants, this bill would once again help local law enforcement agencies fight and reduce crimes. I hope the Senate acts on our bill quickly and the President signs it.”

The bill has been endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations, the U.S Conference of Mayors, and the National League of Cities.

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