[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H485-H486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




TRIBUTE TO NATION'S LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND REQUEST FOR SUPPORT OF 
                    21ST CENTURY POLICING INITIATIVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to our Nation's 
law enforcement officers; to thank them for risking their lives every 
single day to keep my family and my community safe.
  I have had the fortunate experience of meeting many of my local 
officers, because they are spending more and more time in our 
neighborhoods, and it is through the success of Community Oriented 
Policing that we have helped thousands of local police departments 
getting their cops out on the beat and away from their desks.

[[Page H486]]

  The COPS program has hired, redeployed and retained over 100,000 more 
police officers who are now more recognized and are active members of 
their community. But more than that, Community Oriented Policing has 
proven its effectiveness in the fighting of crime. For example, in my 
district there is one agency that has seen crime rates drop 58 percent 
just over the last 5 years. That is more than half of the crime 
dropping.
  Now that the COPS program has reached its goal of placing 100,000 
more cops on the beat, it is time to take the next step in crime 
fighting, and that is through using the most advanced technology to 
make our police more effective, more efficient and more responsive.
  I know a lot of Americans probably watch all of these police officer 
programs on television and they see all these high-tech types of things 
going on, computer databasing, et cetera, in which they are able to get 
the bad guy because of this. But the reality is much different in what 
is happening across the Nation.
  For example, I was in the other day with one of my police departments 
where they told me it takes them almost a year to check fingerprints 
because they have no forensic lab right in their own police department. 
They sent off a pair of fingerprints that used to take 6 to 12 minutes 
to check, and they called back and were told it would take about a year 
before they could get the results back. They said, well, this is a very 
important case. And the woman on the other line said, well, if it is a 
very important case, we could probably make it faster. He said, well, 
how about the homicide of a policeman; is that important enough? And 
she said oh, yes, I think we can do that in two months. Meanwhile, the 
bad guys keep going on and doing the bad things.
  The President has proposed $1.3 billion for the new 21st Century 
Policing Initiative. Part of that initiative includes giving law 
enforcement access to the latest crime fighting technologies. This past 
week I had three or four departments come in and show me some of the 
prototypes that they have for working with computers with analysis. One 
of my local police departments, Santa Ana Police Department, is eagerly 
awaiting to see such a Justice Department program come to fruition. 
Santa Ana PD has already developed plans for a crime analysis unit 
which would map and analyze crime patterns. The work of the unit would 
survey crime trends and patterns to more efficiently allocate police 
resources and to more quickly apprehend career criminals and predict 
crime problems.
  In the 21st century our greatest tool to fight crime is information. 
When departments have detailed data on crime statistics or arrest 
reports they can then achieve a better understanding of each city's 
crime problems and how to best respond. More importantly, crime 
analysis contributes to the COPS' philosophy by reducing administration 
and investigation work for our police officers.
  With Santa Ana PD's excellence in community policing, and their 
foresight in developing a modern advanced technology to fight crime, 
they can develop a crime analysis unit that departments across the 
country can use as a model.
  Let's work together to make the next step in law enforcement work. I 
urge my colleagues to support the 21st Century Policing Initiative and 
to support funding programs like the Santa Ana crime analysis unit.

                          ____________________