    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [July 17, 1996]
    [Pages 1138-1140]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Donation of Cellular Telephones to Neighborhood
    Watch Groups
    July 17, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Matt, for your introduction and for
    your years of community leadership, for doing this before it was popular
    and making sure it becomes more popular. We are grateful to you.
        I thank all of those who have come today. I'm especially glad to see
    Senator Heflin and Congressman Kennedy, Congresswoman Lofgren, Secretary
    Kantor, and Joe Brann who runs our COPS program at the Justice
    Department. His told me that we have now funded 44,000 of those 100,000
    police officers, so we're ahead of schedule and we intend to stay that
    way. I thank Tom Wheeler for being here and the Community Policing
    Consortium executive director, Bill Matthews, and all the rest of you.
        Before I begin my remarks today I just have to take a moment to
    express my outrage and I know the outrage of all Americans at the Nazi
    swastikas which were painted on the doors of African-Americans living in
    the Army Special Forces barracks at Fort Bragg. No one in America should
    be subject to such vile acts. But these men and women of our Armed
    Forces have committed themselves to the highest level of dedication to
    our security. They dedicate their lives to protecting our freedom. They
    embody our commitment to tolerance and liberty. And they do not deserve
    this kind of abuse.
        We are taking immediate action to get to the bottom of this
    incident. We intend to punish those who are responsible. We have a zero
    tolerance for racism in our military, and make no mistake, we intend to
    apply it. I know that I will have your support and the support of all
    Americans in maintaining this position.
        We are joined today by another group of courageous Americans who are
    taking responsibility in their own communities to protect the American
    way of life. There are about 100 neighborhood watch leaders with us here
    today. They represent all the neighborhood watch participants all across
    America. In the last 15 years, as you've just heard, neighborhood
    watches have sprung up on block after block. Every time another American
    puts on an orange hat our streets become a little safer.
        Today there are more than 20,000 neighborhood watch groups in
    America. They're in every State, and they all make a difference. Just
    before coming in I saw some very impressive statistics from Salt Lake
    City and Chicago and Dade County. I recently had the opportunity to
    visit with neighborhood watch activists in San Diego, and they have been
    extremely instrumental in giving that community one of the lowest crime
    rates of any major city in the United States.
        When I lived in Little Rock we had a very active neighborhood watch
    group in my neighborhood. And it was fascinating because if the crime
    rate got too low and the neighborhood watch folks got a little relaxed,
    the crime rate went up. But as soon as they went back on the street it
    went back down again, which was, I guess, the ultimate test of the
    success of the neighborhood watch.
        As the Vice President said, as a nation we have finally begun to
    push crime back. When I ran for President I was struck by two things
    that seemed to me directly in conflict. I was struck by how many
    Americans just had taken for granted that we'd have to put up with an
    unacceptable crime rate forever; how many people just sort of assumed
    that we could never make our streets safe again; that our kids could
    never feel secure walking to and from school again; that we would always
    be worried about being the victims of violent crime. They just sort of
    took it for granted.
        But underneath that it was clear to me, as I traveled around the
    country, that in community after community after community, with
    community policing strategies, with prevention efforts, with
    neighborhood watches, the crime rate was actually beginning to go down,
    in some places, dramatically. And it was the experience

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    that I saw manifested in all these communities that led us to the crime
    bill, with its commitment to 100,000 police, with its commitment to
    tougher punishment for repeat offenders, with its commitment to
    prevention programs, with its commitment to the assault weapons ban and
    the Brady bill, and all the other things which have come out of our
    initiatives.
        All of those ideas were not born in the brain of some Washington
    thinker. They were manifested on the streets of America by people who
    proved to me that we could take our streets back, that we could make
    America safe again. One day, as I have said many times, I'll know we've
    got the crime problem in the right position when you flip on the evening
    news and if the lead story is a crime story, you're shocked instead of
    numb to it. That will be the test. And I believe we can find that day in
    America again. I believe we can only do it, however, when crime
    prevention and crime detection is a community enterprise in every
    community, when every citizen believes that he or she has a
    responsibility to support the police, to be involved in it, to identify
    suspicious circumstances, to try to help kids who are coming up in
    troubled homes on troubled streets stay out of trouble themselves and
    build better lives, when every single citizen believes that he or she is
    responsible for that.
        Those of you who work with the police in these community watch
    programs, you are leading the way. And I think we need to do more to
    help you. I appreciated Matt mentioning that at Penn State I challenged
    another million Americans to join these community crime watch programs.
    I had just seen the difference that you are making, and people in your
    communities feel the difference.
        You know, if you think about it, if you don't feel safe in your
    homes and on your streets, in your schools, and in your places of work,
    most of the rest of the things that happen in life don't amount to much.
    But if you do feel safe, if you feel secure, then very often you feel
    that you can conquer the world even if things aren't going so well. This
    is the first condition of a civilized society, and you are helping to
    guarantee it in a difficult and challenging time.
        The announcement that we have to make today is designed to help you
    do your work. Today a coalition of telecommunications leaders is
    determined to join forces with you and with our police. The Cellular
    Telecommunications Industry Association has actually pledged to provide
    every neighborhood watch patrol in America with a cellular phone to use
    on the beat and free air time to go with it. That is a remarkable
    commitment.
        They have set aside an initial 50,000 phones and have promised to
    make sure that every patrol that needs a phone gets what it needs. Their
    board of directors is here today. They met with the Vice President not
    very long ago who issued this challenge and discussed it with them. But
    they made the decision to do it entirely on their own. It is an
    astonishing act of good citizenship and generosity. So I'd like to ask
    the board to stand, and I think we should all give them the hand they
    deserve. Please stand up. [Applause] Thank you. And I want to thank you,
    too, Tom Wheeler, for doing a great job in so many, many ways.
        Communities on phone patrol will connect citizens on the beat to the
    police, the fire, the medical support they need in an emergency. These
    phones will be preprogrammed to local emergency numbers determined by
    local law enforcement officials. To get a phone, established volunteer
    groups will contact the local police chief or the local sheriff. A one-
    page application and 72 hours later, the cell phone should be on its
    way.
        Now, when drug dealers wear pagers and gang members have cell
    phones, I think it's time we put high technology on the side of law and
    order. This will help our citizens to have stronger links with law
    enforcement as they work to take back our streets. In the right hands,
    these cell phones will save lives and stop crimes. When citizens are on
    patrol, the cell phone will help to keep them safer. When they see
    something suspicious, the cell phone can bring the police. When they see
    a medical emergency, a cell phone can connect them to the ambulance
    service immediately. From now on help will be just a phone call away.
        From San Francisco to San Antonio, citizens with cell phones are
    already making a difference in the fight against crime. In Dade County,
    Florida, the citizens with cell phones are helping to bring down
    burglaries, robberies, and thefts. In Albany, Oregon, parents are using
    cell phones on patrolling school grounds. San Francisco Police Chief
    Fred Lau says cellular phones help citizens on patrol, quote, ``feel
    safe'' and help

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    police officers arrive at the scene quickly, make arrests when
    appropriate.
        Today is a good day for our country. With the support from our
    businesses, commitments from our citizens, and the constant courage of
    our police officers, we're taking another step toward a safer future for
    our children, our families, and our communities. We all know we will
    never be able to eliminate crime completely, but we can--we can--make it
    the exception, not the rule again. We can create conditions in which
    Americans are literally shocked when they hear of serious crimes, not
    simply numb to it. And we must keep working together until we create
    that kind of America for our children.
        Now let me say, right now, I have the privilege of asking a
    neighborhood watch volunteer to come up here and receive the very first
    phone which has the COPP logo on it--Communities on Phone Patrol--COPP
    with two P's. And they also put the Presidential logo on it--
    [laughter]--proving that the Vice President is not the only person that
    can handle a piece of high-tech equipment in this administration.
    [Laughter]
        So I'd like to ask Sandy Sparks from Baltimore to come up here. I
    want to thank her for her dedication and make her the first recipient of
    this incredible gift that these folks in the telecommunications industry
    have provided to the citizens of America.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Matt Peskin, executive
    director, National Association of Town Watch; Tom Wheeler, president,
    Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association; William Matthews,
    executive director, Community Policing Consortium; and Sandy Sparks,
    neighborhood watch volunteer.