Congressman Sander Levin

Local Law Enforcement and First Responders

We must be diligent in ensuring all of our law enforcement agencies receive proper funding. Spending on law enforcement in Michigan has been cut by nine percent since 2002, resulting in almost 2,000 fewer cops in Michigan today compared to earlier this decade.

In the 111th Congress, we have begun taking significant steps to renew our commitment to public safety. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in February, provides $4 billion to state and local law enforcement to hire new officers, acquire up-to-date crime fighting technology, combat violence against women, and fight internet crimes against children.

COPS Program

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program provides federal funding to help local and state police departments build or maintain the size of their forces. Over the past 15 years, the program supported the hiring of almost 120,000 new police officers. The $1 billion in COPS funding provided through the Recovery Act will hire an additional 5,500 officers and the House recently acted to fund 50,000 more positions over the next five years with the passage of H.R. 1139, the COPS Improvement Act of 2009.

The need for this program is underscored by the large number of communities that applied this year for a Recovery Act grant: in total, the COPS Office received 7,272 applications requesting $8.3 billion to fund 39,000 positions, over eight times the amount of funding available. I recently joined several of my House colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the Appropriations Committee urging full funding of the COPS program for FY2010 to meet this widespread need.

Byrne/JAG

The Byrne/Justice Assistance Grant Program is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local police departments. At least 75 cents of every dollar goes to local sheriff and police departments.

This year, I joined a bipartisan letter to the House Appropriations Committee and House Speaker Pelosi urging full funding of the Byrne/JAG program for FY2010. The letter expressed concern that deteriorating economic conditions may lead to an increase in violent crime, underscoring the need to help departments be fully staffed and have the best crime-fighting technology. In the meantime, police departments are helped by 2 billion in new funding for Byrne/JAG grants provided by the Recovery Act, from which police departments in Michigan received a total of $67 million.

Byrne/JAG funds support wide-ranging components of the criminal justice system, including multijurisdictional drug and gang task forces, crime prevention, hate crime and domestic violence response programs, prosecution and court programs, technology upgrades, and the purchasing of new equipment.

Assistance to Firefighters

Since 2001, the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program has provided money to help fire departments and emergency responders better protect the health and safety of the public and their personnel in fire and fire-related hazards. Grants are used to purchase equipment, protective gear, and emergency vehicles and to provide training and necessary resources. $565 million in grant funding is available this year and I am working to support the grant applications of the communities in my district.

A safe working environment for our firefighters is paramount. Firefighters are routinely exposed to harmful substances in the line of duty and, as a result, are more likely to suffer from heart and lung disease and various types of cancers. I continue to support efforts to improve access to disability coverage and health care for firefighters, which is why I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 948, the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act. This bill would ease the process of applying for disability and worker compensation benefits for federal firefighters who become ill from diseases frequently associated with this line of work.

Improved Technology

Advances in technology for first responders greatly benefit our communities: police officers, firefighters, and medical technicians are able to do their jobs more efficiently and respond faster to emergency situations; local governments save money thanks to improved efficiency and technology sharing across communities; and our communities are safer and better-served.

The cost savings cutting-edge law enforcement technology can provide becomes even more important as local budgets are under increasing stress during these difficult economic times. Many communities throughout Southeast Michigan are working to consolidate services and maximize the reach of new technology.

In Oakland County, CLEMIS, the Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System, is a leading example of a regional technological partnership. In 1999, I secured a nearly $20 million grant for CLEMIS, which CLEMIS has carefully managed over the past decade to now support almost 100 law enforcement departments and more than 8,000 users across Southeast Michigan with computer aided dispatch, geographical information systems, mobile data communications, electronic prisoner processing, and a shared criminal records database. I continue to support CLEMIS’s work wherever possible, and most recently requested funding to expand its palm print identification system and provide portable biometric identification devices to officers in the field. I am also working with other Michigan Members of Congress to support CLEMIS’s grant request for a new records management database, an upgrade that will greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of police departments throughout Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne Counties.

In Macomb County, efforts are underway at the city and county levels to implement a regional response to emergencies. This year, I helped secure a $900,000 grant to advance efforts by Roseville, Eastpointe, and St. Clair Shores to develop a shared emergency response system and a $500,000 grant to create a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center in Macomb County. Over the past few years, I helped secure almost $2 million for interoperable communications to help communities in Southern Macomb implement and use an 800 MHz radio infrastructure system that provides universal communications ability to all police, fire and EMS emergency first responders throughout the County.

The ability for first responders to have seamless communications is essential to our safety and the effectiveness of our emergency response. I am committed to working on behalf of communities in the 12th District to help them obtain the technology and equipment they need to fight crime and respond quickly to emergencies.

(Updated October 8, 2009)