[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        REVISING THE CRIME BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Meehan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I too rise to join with my colleagues, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Stupak], the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Filner], and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Chapman] to discuss 
what is going to happen before this body this week, and that is action 
on the crime bill.
  Just this past September President Clinton signed into law the 
smartest, most comprehensive, toughest crime bill in the history of 
this country. This legislation was the result of input over a 6-year 
period from Members of Congress and law enforcement officials all 
across this country. It puts more cops on the streets. It builds more 
prisons, it pays for crime prevention programs and imposes tougher 
penalties for violent crimes.
  Before I got elected to Congress I had an opportunity to learn a 
little something about crime because I ran the Middlesex County 
district attorney's office. We had 13,000 criminal cases in that office 
a year. I worked with 54 cities and towns, police departments, in urban 
areas and suburban areas working on a daily basis in the fight against 
crime, on the front line of the fight against crime.
  This week the Congress will begin consideration of a crime bill 
designed by Republican political strategists based on focus groups and 
political polls. I have to tell my colleagues that you do not determine 
a strategy for fighting crime by reading a political poll or talking to 
a focus group, or sticking your finger in the wind to determine which 
way the political winds are blowing.
  Fighting crime is a profession, fighting crime requires research, and 
experience on the front lines. And it is not ironic that the Attorney 
General of this country is a woman who has experience in the front 
lines of the fight against crime.
  When I heard the rhetoric during the crime bill, it was so painfully 
obvious to me that there were so few Members of this institution that 
really had experience in the front lines against crime.
  But not even 4 months after we passed and the President signed into 
law this crime bill, we are going to vote changes on this crime bill 
based on partisan politics, all in the name of partisan politics and 
solely for the purpose of claiming ownership of the crime issue.

                              {time}  2010

  What makes matters even worse is that the changes are not going to 
help but going to hurt the fight against crime. The bill will not put 
100,000 new police officers on the streets. It eliminates community 
policing programs.
  Community-based policing is one of the most effective proven ways to 
fight crime. My home city of Lowell just put a report out, because we 
instituted community policing, the new Lowell police chief with 13 new 
police officers as a result of a community policing initiative. Since 
instituting community policing, car theft, larceny, home burglary, and 
business burglaries are all down significantly. The Republican plan 
will put fewer cops on the streets by eliminating this community 
policing program and allowing local officials to do what they deem 
necessary, perhaps buy more fax machines, perhaps buy more automobiles. 
That is not effective community policing. Community policing involves 
community partnerships.
  The city of Lowell has instituted a model program in community 
policing, forming partnerships, because that is the hallmark of 
community-oriented police departments. They have put in neighborhood 
police precincts, cutting the rate of crime in those neighborhoods, 
establishing a relationship with the people in those neighborhoods. 
They have closed down more than 150 buildings in 1994 which were 
identified as drug houses.
  Other special units have resulted in the community response team 
having made over 350 arrests, school visits by precinct officers where 
precinct officers actually go into the schools and lecture about crime 
prevention and lecture about what the goals of the police department 
are and how the community can play a role, a flag football league where 
members of the Lowell Police Department actually volunteer their time 
to get involved with the community in that flag football program, 
street worker program, basketball leagues where the police officers 
again, they are volunteers, operating within the community to get to 
know the community and get those kids headed in the right direction. 
Community policing works. It is not a debatable proposition.
  There is not a law enforcement professional in the country who will 
say that community policing is not in the best interests of fighting 
crime. Gov. Bill
 Weld, a Republican Governor from Massachusetts, is in favor of 
community policing.

  While we look and watch the debate this week, let us put aside 
partisan politics and look at what really works. We cannot afford to 
dismantle this community policing program.

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