[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 62 (Monday, April 27, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      COPS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 23, 2009

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this important public 
safety legislation.
  The Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, program is one of 
the most successful law enforcement support programs ever initiated by 
the federal government. As the National Association of Police 
Organizations noted in their April 21 letter to me on this bill, ``With 
the support of the COPS Program, community policing has been a dominant 
force behind the dramatic reduction in crime this nation has witnessed 
over the past 13 years.'' It's also clear that our communities are 
desperate to see this program properly funded, after eight years of 
neglect.
  NAPO noted in their letter to me that in the last month, the COPS 
Program office received over 7,200 applications for the COPS Hiring 
Recovery Program (CHRP) grant funding contained in the American 
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the ``stimulus bill.'' Those 7,200 
applications amounted to a request for funds to hire 40,000 more 
officers nationwide. Yet the $1 billion CHRP contained in the stimulus 
bill would allow local communities to hire only 5,000 to 6,000 new 
police. For New Jersey, previous COPS funding has meant an additional 
628 police officers and/or sheriff deputies were walking the beat in 
the local communities of my Congressional district. Further, 33 school 
resource officers were hired to ensure that our children's schools are 
safe. H.R. 1139 would raise the CHRP authorization level to $1.25 
billion, allowing state and local law enforcement to hire more 
officers. Based on historical funding data, this bill would allow New 
Jersey alone to hire more than 2,000 additional police, and those would 
be welcome reinforcements for our current law enforcement officers who 
are working to improve the quality of life in communities across New 
Jersey.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a good and much needed bill, and I urge my 
colleagues to join me in supporting it.

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