[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 27398]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     PROVIDING RELIABLE OFFICERS, TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION, COMMUNITY 
       PROSECUTORS, AND TRAINING IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS ACT OF 2003

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 5, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce a public safety 
bill for the second week in a row. My current bill would reauthorize 
the successful Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program that 
has used federal funds to help put more cops on the streets and to fund 
community policing. Like a similar Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph 
Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and almost 50 other Senators, my bill seeks to head 
off the shut down of the COPS program, as forecast by the President's 
2004 fiscal year budget, which severely cut COPS and critical community 
policing projects. Last week, I introduced the Crime Victims Assistance 
Act of 2003 to provide enhanced rights and protections for victims of 
federal crimes. This bill also has been introduced in the Senate.
  As a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, I have 
watched police departments here and across the country pressed 
increasingly into protecting the homeland from potential terrorism. Our 
police need funding and support from the federal government now more 
than ever if they also are to continue to focus on the indispensable 
everyday duties of protecting their communities from street violence 
and other crime. My bill would provide funding to help police 
departments put more officers on the beat, purchase high-tech crime 
fighting tools and technology such as patrol car cameras, pay overtime 
devoted to community policing and homeland security, and reimburse 
officers for college or graduate school. Also, my bill would help the 
U.S. Attorney's office hire more community prosecutors who interact 
closely with the people they serve. The District of Columbia has been a 
pioneer in community prosecution, which links prosecutors to specific 
police districts and neighborhoods.
  Recent studies show that COPS grants played a critical role in the 
crime drop of the nineties. Now with cities like the District 
experiencing alarming criminal activity, police departments need all 
the help they can get to find real solutions for handling the heavy 
double burden of balancing the securing of citizens from terrorism 
along with protecting them from violence and other crime in their 
neighborhoods.
  Since it was created in the 1994 Crime bill, COPS has awarded more 
than $8 billion to police departments to hire or re-deploy almost 
120,000 community police officers across the country. In FY 2003, the 
COPS office awarded $635 million in grants nationwide, and almost $7.5 
million to the District, $3 million for Metropolitan Police Department 
homeland security overtime. In September, I announced a $750,000 grant 
for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to hire 
10 new Metro officers who will perform community policing and homeland 
security functions. Many other jurisdictions received similar grants.
  My bill will fund the COPS program through 2009. A key change would 
authorize a new, permanent COPS Overtime Program.
  I urge my colleagues to continue to reauthorize the COPS program.

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