[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 51 (Friday, April 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3731-S3732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BUMPERS:
  S. 1688. A bill to establish a National Center for Rural Law 
Enforcement, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


             the national rural law enforcement act of 1996

 Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I am introducing the National 
Rural Law Enforcement Act of 1996. This bill is not very complicated. 
It establishes a National Center for Rural Law Enforcement, to provide 
rural police and sheriff departments with the training they need to 
meet the demands of modern rural law enforcement.
  Consider a few facts and figures about rural crime and law 
enforcement:
  One third of all Americans live in rural areas.
  Ninety percent of the law enforcement agencies in our country serve 
populations of 25,000 or fewer citizens. Three quarters of those 
departments serve fewer than 10,000 citizens.
  Crime in rural communities has risen more than 35 percent during the 
last decade.
  The Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Arkansas at 
Little Rock

[[Page S3732]]

has been the headquarters of a movement by rural law enforcement 
administrators to fill the training void they face. The Institute has 
sponsored a number of conferences in five regions around the country to 
identify the training needs of rural law enforcement and prescribe 
measures to meet those needs. This bill is a response to their efforts 
and the needs they have documented and described.
  The National Center for Rural Law Enforcement will: Provide rural law 
enforcement managers training tailored to rural law enforcement needs; 
provide research and technical assistance to rural law enforcement 
agencies; provide a communications network linking rural agency heads 
around the country, develop curriculum tailored to the needs of rural 
law enforcement officers; articulate the viewpoint of rural law 
enforcement professionals; and project its training capability to sites 
in communities all over the United States.
  Every Senator represents rural communities. As we travel our States, 
we hear time and again about sophisticated and vicious crime in small 
rural communities, the sort of crime we used to believe was found only 
in big cities. The National Center for Rural Law Enforcement will help 
to equip rural law enforcement professionals to deal with those 
problems in the most effective manner, with the same tools their urban 
colleagues enjoy.
  The NCRLE will enjoy the participation and input of the FBI and the 
Justice Department and some Federal funding, but its heart and soul 
will be the State and local law enforcement officers of rural America. 
It represents the kind of Federal State local cooperation that is so 
vital today. I hope that arrangement, along with the obvious need for a 
National Center for Rural Law Enforcement, will bring bipartisan 
support for this bill. The National Center for Rural Law Enforcement is 
necessary. It will meet a vital need for rural America, at low cost in 
the context of a true Federal partnership. I urge my colleagues to 
cosponsor the National Rural Law Enforcement Act of 1996. 
                                 ______