[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[December 19, 1994]
[Pages 2188-2190]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Announcing the Appointment of Joseph Brann as Director of 
Community Oriented Policing Services
December 19, 1994

    Thank you very much, Chief Brann, for your remarks and your 
commitment. We're delighted to have you and your fine family here and on 
board. Chief Sanders, thank you for your remarks and for your work. To 
General Reno and to Director and former Chief Brown, and the Deputy 
Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, to the Members of 
Congress who are here, and the mayors, and other leaders of people who 
will benefit from this work that is being done. This is a very happy day 
for the people of the United States.
    I ran for President because I wanted to restore the American dream 
and bring this country together as we move into the 21st century. And 
there were three sort of slogans that, from time to time, I used to try 
to capture what I thought we ought to be about. One was ``putting people 
first,'' restore the values of middle class America. The other was, 
``Don't stop thinking about tomorrow,'' which basically means we're 
hurtling into the future at a rapid rate, and we better prepare for it. 
The third was the idea that we needed a covenant in this country, not 
just a deal but a covenant, a solemn agreement that we would attempt in 
the Government to provide more opportunity, but that the citizens of 
America would assume more personal responsibility for themselves, their 
families, and then in the process we would build the American community 
again.
    We can't do any of that if the people of this country feel afraid on 
their streets, in their homes, and in their schools. And we are taking a 
stand against that. But we're also doing it in a way that reinforces our 
commitment to

[[Page 2189]]

thinking about the future and the need for people to assume more 
personal responsibility, all of us.
    When I had the honor of addressing the Nation last Thursday night, 
and I was able to outline the middle class bill of rights, which will be 
at the center of our agenda when the Congress comes back, to give people 
the opportunity to invest in their children's education, in the raising 
of their children, in savings so that the money will be there if it's 
needed for health care or caring for a parent or preparing for future 
education, I said that we were going to do that not by increasing the 
Government deficit or raising taxes but by reducing the size of 
Government, by paying for it.
    The deficit of this country quadrupled in the 12 years before I 
became President, and I want you to think about this when you make out 
your income tax check in April: 28 cents of every dollar you pay to us 
next April will go to pay for the interest run up on the debt 
accumulated between 1981 and January of 1993.
    So today the Vice President and I announced some dramatic changes in 
reductions in the Federal Government, cutting yesterday's Government so 
we could invest in tomorrow's community empowerment through the middle 
class bill of rights. But the first example of doing that is what we're 
here to celebrate today, the crime bill. Cut and invest.
    We did not raise the deficit a penny to pay for the crime bill. We 
did not raise taxes a penny to pay for the crime bill. The Congress 
supported a reduction in the Federal Government to its smallest size in 
30 years so that we could put these 100,000 police on the street. That 
is an example of what the Government should be doing to exercise its 
responsibility to give people at the community level and law enforcement 
and the local leaders the power they need to move forward.
    And I'd like to say that I'm very proud of everything that was in 
that crime bill. I'm proud of the 100,000 police. I'm proud of the 
punishment and the prevention. I believe in ``three strikes and you're 
out,'' and I believe in trying to keep kids from making the first 
strike. And I think most law enforcement people do as well. And I 
believe that those of you who live and work in our communities, know 
best what your problems are and can best solve them.
    One of the things that I learned as a Governor for a dozen years is 
that we really do need national leadership in many areas, but when it 
comes to deciding exactly how to solve problems, and how to seize 
opportunities, there's very little I can do in Washington, DC, that will 
solve the problems that Chief Sanders deals with in San Diego, except to 
give him the tools to do the job. That is the ultimate decision that the 
Congress made in the crime bill.
    I want to say a special word of thanks to Chief Brann for agreeing 
to come all the way across the country to the most regularly condemned 
city in America, Washington, DC, to do this job. He was selected in part 
because he believed in community policing. And you heard that today.
    One of the new ideas that I came across as I traveled the country 
was this whole idea of community policing, not just as a device for 
patrolling the streets but as the chief said, as a philosophy of law 
enforcement. And it makes so much sense. You've already heard that we 
have now put about 10,000 of our 100,000 police officers in process to 
be on the street. And we're going to keep going until it's all done.
    Today we have over 600 jurisdictions in our country who are going to 
get police officers: over 300 in Chicago, almost 50 in San Diego--that's 
not why the chief came here to brag on this, though; he really believes 
in it--almost 100 in Detroit, nearly 80 in Baltimore, over 150 in 
Philadelphia.
    Not long ago, I received a letter jointly signed by the mayor and 
the police chief of Odessa, Texas. That was one of the first cities to 
receive community policing money from the crime bill. They told me that 
since they began to institute aggressive community policing, serious 
crimes have dropped 43 percent, fewer murders, fewer rapes, fewer 
robberies, fewer assaults. I say this to make this point: One of the 
things that I saw happening out in America when this crime bill was 
being debated in Congress is that the American people one day would wake 
up and they would cheer the Congress for trying to deal with crime. And 
then someone would raise a question about this effort or that effort or 
the other effort, and their cynicism would rise up because they said, 
``Oh, the crime rate has been going up for 30 years, and it's terrible, 
and it's never going to get any better, and nobody can do anything about 
it.''
    That is wrong. The crime rate can go down, just as it came up. And 
we are committed to

[[Page 2190]]

taking it down. Ultimately, the purpose of the crime bill is to give 
people at the grassroots the power to lower the crime rate, not to hire 
more police, to have fewer crimes. That is the purpose of what we are 
doing. And it can happen. It happened in Odessa, Texas. It's happened in 
a lot of big cities around this country. It can happen all over America.
    I know that Members of this new Congress have some ideas about 
fighting crime. I welcome those ideas. I ask them only to remember that 
we should do what was done in the last Congress: listen to the people in 
law enforcement; listen to the people in community organizations; listen 
to the people at the grassroots level who know how to catch criminals, 
but who also know how to prevent crime and lower the crime rate. If we 
listen to people at the grassroots level and enlist ourselves as your 
supporters, then we can continue to make progress on crime. But I also 
have to say that I don't think we should turn back on the progress we 
have made. We shouldn't give up on this community policing program. We 
ought to keep going until there are 100,000 more police on the street. 
And I'm going to do my dead-level best to make sure we don't turn back.
    I'm going to come up with plenty of budget cuts. But we shouldn't 
cut the money that Lee Brown and people all over America need for drug 
prevention, drug education, drug treatment, things to lower the problem 
of drugs so we can lower the crime rate in that way. We shouldn't do 
that.
    And even though we did not have a majority in both parties for the 
Brady bill, and we certainly didn't have a majority in both parties for 
the assault weapons ban last time, I think we ought to leave them right 
where they are. We ought to stay with it, and go forward and implement 
it.
    I think all of you know that there's one thing the skeptics said 
during the crime bill debate that was right. It wasn't an argument to 
vote against the crime bill, but it was true. We can pass all these laws 
and come up with all this money and all these prohibitions, but if we 
don't implement it right at the grassroots level, the crime rate won't 
go down. That is true. We could have 50 crime bills and a million police 
officers, and if the American people don't join in the fight, the crime 
rate won't go down.
    So the last thing that I'd like to say is that if community policing 
is more than a deployment of police officers, and is really a philosophy 
of law enforcement, it is two words: police and community. That means 
that neighbors have to help neighbors, parents have to raise kids, that 
schools have to do things they didn't used to have to do. But if we do 
this together, then this community policing can be the banner of a safer 
America. And if we can lower the crime rate again, and make people feel 
safer on their streets, in their homes, and in their schools, we will 
begin to see this country coming together as a community again, we will 
begin to see people believing in our country again, we will begin to see 
people willing to make sacrifices for the common good again.
    For all that all of you have done to that end, I thank you very 
much.

Note: The President spoke at 2:28 p.m. in the Great Hall at the Justice 
Department. In his remarks, he referred to Police Chief Jerry Sanders of 
San Diego, CA. Police Chief Brann of Hayward, CA, will administer the 
Department of Justice police hiring program.