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Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland) and local law enforcement officials held a press conference today at the Westchester County Airport to discuss the extremely high cost of police overtime during periods of raised terror alert status and the lagging rate of reimbursement from the federal government. Lowey said she has authored legislation to expand the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to cover these overtime costs.
“The economic downturn and high homeland security costs have exploded local and county budgets in recent years. The cost of code orange overtime for police officers is money out the door. Expanding COPS to provide direct reimbursements for overtime will help fill the gaps in local budgets more quickly,” Lowey said.
Westchester County and local police departments incur extremely high overtime costs during period of raised terror alerts, known as “code orange.” While the nation was under code orange for three weeks, from December 21, 2003, to January 9, 2004, the County and five municipal governments spent over $386,000 in overtime for local police officers, as shown below:
Westchester County $247,105
Yonkers $30,782
White Plains $85,000
Village of Ossining $8,700
Larchmont $2,470
Tuckahoe $12,250
Current policy allows local governments to seek reimbursement for these costs from the federal Department of Homeland Security by submitting them through the states. Lowey said this cumbersome process could be made simpler and provide reimbursements more quickly by expanding the successful COPS program, which already covers police overtime for homeland security training sessions and other law enforcement activities designed to prevent terrorism.
Lowey will introduce legislation that would allow local and county governments to submit requests for costly code orange overtime reimbursements to the Department of Justice’s COPS program. This will help expedite reimbursements for municipalities that have been forced to punch gaping holes in their budgets to ensure the security of our communities during periods of heightened alert.
“In recent years, our police officers have been called above and beyond the call of duty to prevent and respond to the worst kind of crime – terrorism. The COPS program has worked for a decade to give police departments the unique support they need to keep our communities safe. It makes sense to build upon our previous success in working to meet the homeland security challenges our nation now faces,” Lowey said.
Since 1994, COPS has put almost 12,000 additional police officers on the streets in New York. The initiative has provided almost $855 million directly to police departments throughout the state, including $70 million for crime-fighting technologies. |
