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Congressman Capuano, Senator Kerry and Senator Kennedy Announce $225,000 COPS Grant to the City of Cambridge

April 16, 1999 -- 8th District Representative Michael Capuano, U.S. Senator John Kerry and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy today announced a $225,000 COPS grant award for the City of Cambridge. The funds will be used to hire additional community police officers. Congressman Capuano and Senator Kerry were joined in Cambridge this afternoon by Cambridge Mayor Frank Duehay, Cambridge Police Commissioner Ronnie Watson, police officers and community leaders at a press conference announcing the grant.

The funding is part of President Clinton's 1994 Crime Act, which authorized $8.8 billion over six years to hire 100,000 officers nationwide. As part of this initiative, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the U.S. Department of Justice was created to facilitate the placing of additional officers on the streets.

"Community policing is an invaluable tool against the war on crime because it puts police officers on the streets and in regular contact with the residents they are charged with protecting. This grant will allow the City of Cambridge to hire additional officers to expand their community policing program," stated Congressman Capuano.

"There is no doubt that community policing works," stated Senator Kerry. "It is an essential tool in the fight to decrease crime in our cities and towns. Quite simply, this grant will make Cambridge a safer place to live and work by putting more cops on the street."

Senator Kennedy said, "This grant will strengthen the ability of the Cambridge Police Department to protect the public. With the help of these funds, the department can hire additional officers and put more police on the beat. The COPS grant program is one of the most effective crime-fighting programs of the federal government, and it's helping to bring the crime rate down in communities across America."

"These funds will help us to further the strategy of community policing, which has been effective in reducing crime on our streets," stated Cambridge Police Commissioner Ronnie Watson. To date, the COPS program has authorized funding to add more that 92,000 community policing officers to the nation's streets. The City of Cambridge was one of only five communities in the Commonwealth to receive funding during this round of grant awards.