[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              COPS PROGRAM

  (Mr. WISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, there are lots of reasons, and the good news 
is, of course, that the crime rate has been dropping across the 
country. And there are lots of reasons.
  There are two reasons I think I would like to talk about briefly 
today. The first is the COPS program that this Congress passed several 
years ago, putting 100,000 new police officers on the street, hundreds 
of them in West Virginia; and I believe that that has made a very 
powerful difference.
  But there is another reason, too. Regardless of how that police 
officer puts on the uniform, whether the COPS program or whatever way 
they are funded, the important thing is the police officer themselves, 
the men and women who wear the uniform.
  What we need to recognize in this Congress is still, while the crime 
rate is dropping, the danger that they face is still there, whether 
they are walking up on a deserted car on a highway, whether they are 
answering a call in a rural area, whether they are in the city. We need 
to remember their needs fundamentally and, most importantly, to say 
``thank you.''

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