[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1266-H1267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       SUPPORT COMMUNITY POLICING

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow we will begin the debate on a new 
Republican crime bill. There will be six bills, and we expect the 
debate to go for a week to 10 days.
  One of the first victims in the new GOP crime bill will be cops on 
the street, or community policing as we know it.
  Cops on the street may be the first victim actually victimized and 
mugged under the new proposed crime bill. In August 1994, a crime bill 
was passed by this body. Even though I may not have supported the final 
committee conference version of the crime bill, I believe that the 
community policing program is an invaluable tool in the fight against 
crime.
  No one law will stop crime, no one program will stop crime in this 
country. The revamping of the crime bill that is going to be proposed 
in the next day on this floor certainly will not stop crime in this 
country.
  In order to stop crime we must all join in the fight against crime. 
We must all share that responsibility. Police officers cannot do it 
alone. We must each work in our respective communities and work with 
the police officers if we are going to have an impact on crime. That is 
what community policing is all about, law enforcement officers living 
and working in their beat, in their patrol area, to gain the respect 
and trust of the citizens they serve.
  To gain that trust, respect and confidence, community policing 
requires the law enforcement to actually live in 
 [[Page H1267]] the community they serve. Therefore, if there is a 
crime, the initial complaint is handled by the police officer. The 
follow-up investigation is handled by the same police officer. That 
same police officer goes to the prosecutor to secure the warrant, and 
that is the same police officer that goes with you at the time of a 
criminal trial, if one takes place.
  What community policing does is personalizes crime to build the trust 
and confidence between the community and a police officer. Your crime 
will no longer just be your crime, but it will be a crime that will be 
shared with your police officer. You are working with, you are standing 
with, you are living with, not only your community, but you are living 
with the police officer who is there to serve you.
  As a police officer for almost 12 years myself, we had an old saying 
back when I was working the road: ``If you want to know what is going 
on in any community, ask a 12-year-old kid on a bicycle, for they know 
what is going on in their communities.''

                              {time}  1940

  They will not tell the police officers what is going on until there 
is that confidence, that trust and that respect.
  In the last crime bill, the community policing program, commonly 
referred to as Clinton Cops, was a program that is being used 
throughout this nation. It has only been in effect for the last 3 or 4 
months. But the forerunner to this Clinton Cops program was back in 
1978 and 1979, in the Department of Justice, a pilot program which was 
put forth in northern Michigan.
  Northern Michigan, my district, is a sparsely populated area in the 
north end of Michigan, and three rural, sparsely-populated townships 
were put together to form a community policing program.
  The program was a smashing success, with over 70 percent of all the 
reported crimes being solved.
  Unsolved crimes from years past were cleaned up by the community 
police officer. In fact, in this case, it was a Michigan State police 
trooper, and he was referred to as the resident trooper.
  It was the first community policing program in Michigan. Community 
policing is now currently at work in communities as rural as northern 
Michigan with our three townships or in the highly populated cities 
such as Houston. Community policing works because police officers live 
in the community and near the neighbors which they police.
  These police with the faith and confidence and trust of the people 
they serve, their constituents.
  It is one program that is highly successful. To dismantle the 
President's community police program would be a crime in and of itself. 
It will be dismantled if the votes hold up as they have in recent days, 
not because there is waste in the program. It will be dismantled not 
because it does not work, because we all know it does. The reason why 
it will be dismantled will be purely for political reasons.
  In a crime bill, we need a combination of police, prevention and 
prisons. A balance of these three principles will be most successful in 
fighting crime.
  We must leave community policing intact. We must leave the Clinton 
Cops program alone. It may only have been in existence for 3 or 4 
months, but in city after city, in rural area throughout this country, 
it has worked.


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