Popular COPS Program Killed on House Floor by Republican Majority

Rep. Slaughter Responds to Republican Refusal to Reauthorize Effective/Popular Community Oriented Policing Program

Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, spoke out Wednesday afternoon in response to a Republican led party line vote on the floor of the House of Representatives against reauthorizing the popular and successful Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.

Rep. Slaughter stated, "COPS has done more to reduce the rate of crime in this country than anything else we've done in Congress.  Over the past 10 years it has sent more than $8 billion to local law enforcement agencies to hire, equip, and train more than 116,000 community policing professionals." She continued, "Our communities depend on this money.  COPS has helped to put more police on the streets making certain that our neighborhoods remain a safe place to raise families."

By voting for the previous question, House Republicans killed, on a party line vote, an effort led by Reps. Michael Capuano (D-MA) & Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and other Democrats to include an amendment to H.R. 1279 (The Gang Deterrence & Community Protection Act of 2005) that would have reauthorized the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program for an addition three years.

"This important amendment should have been debated on the House floor. It is absolutely outrageous that the Republican Leadership would not allow for a real discussion and vote on this issue. They should be giving each and every member of Congress the opportunity to voice their opinion on this reauthorization. Instead they are closing off the process from debate, dissension and democracy," said Rep. Slaughter.

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program:

• Provides grants to tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to hire and train community policing professionals, acquire and deploy cutting-edge crime-fighting technologies, and develop and test innovative policing strategies;
• Offers training that helps advance community policing at all levels of law enforcement - from line officers to law enforcement executives - as well as others in the criminal justice field and reaches state and local government leaders and the citizens they serve;
• Offers a broad range of programs that provide support to other agencies in virtually every aspect of law enforcement.

Since 1994, COPS has distributed over eight billion dollars to advance community policing efforts. This funding has:

• Helped nearly 12,950 jurisdictions through 27 different grant programs;
• Enabled local law enforcement agencies to hire, equip, and train new community policing professionals;
• Helped redeploy existing officers into their communities and enabled offices to study ways to maximize the impact they have on the people who live there;
• Enabled the creation of a wide variety of strategies to advance community policing through innovative techniques and technologies;
• Provided funding for 116,574 community policing professionals across the country.

All state, local, federally-recognized tribal, and public law enforcement agencies, as well as jurisdictions serving special populations (e.g., transit, university, public housing, schools, and natural resources) are eligible to apply for funding unless specified otherwise.