The House Restores the Highly Successful COPS Hiring Program

Washington, DC (May 15, 2007) – Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) today joined a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives to pass H.R. 1700, the COPS Reauthorization Act.  This measure relaunches the COPS hiring grants program and is designed to help local law enforcement agencies hire an additional 50,000 police officers over the next six years.

“This legislation will once again give our local law enforcement agencies the tools they need to fight crime and help us bring crime rates back down,” said Hinojosa. “Under the COPS hiring grants program, our nation experienced a significant drop in crime rates and independent studies confirm that these grants played a significant role. We have made our nation’s citizens safer by reviving this effective program.”

The popular COPS hiring grants program was created under the Clinton Administration in 1994. From 1995 to 2005, this program helped local law enforcement agencies to hire 117,000 additional police officers – which helped to significantly reduce crime across the country.  Over those 10 years, Texas received over $450 million in COPS hiring grants funding, which enabled the state to hire 6,000 police officers. According to nonpartisan GAO 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, funding for COPS hiring grants was sharply reduced – decreasing funding from more than $1 billion a year in the late 1990s to $198 million in 2003 and $10 million in 2005.  In 2006, the Republican-led Congress completely eliminated the program.

At the same time, violent crime has spiked across the nation.  Earlier this year, the Police Executive Research Forum, a prominent law enforcement association, released a report which found that violent crimes 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.

This legislation 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.