    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [October 21, 1999]
    [Pages 1839-1842]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the National Association of Police Organizations
    October 21, 1999

        Thank you very much, Tom. Congressman
    Stupak, Representatives Larson and Udall, thank you for being here.
    And I want to thank in their absence Senator Biden and Senator Leahy. Senator
    Biden had to go cast a very important vote in the Congress. He was here
    earlier.
        I also want to thank the executive director of NAPO, Bob
    Scully, who has been a great friend to this
    administration and a great fighter for our police initiatives. And I
    want to introduce formally our new director of the COPS program, Tom
    Frazier, the former Baltimore Police
    Commissioner. Thank you, Tom, for your willingness to serve. Please
    stand up so they can see you.
        I also have a note which says we are joined today by Attorney
    General Nixon of Missouri and Mayor
    Lafuente of Poughkeepsie, New York, so I
    welcome them here.
        I look forward to this day every year, to honor the people who are
    standing behind me. They honor us every day just by going to work. And
    they, I am sure, would be the first to tell you that even though they
    have done really magnificent things deserving of the honor of America's
    Top Cops, that they really stand in the shoes of thousands, indeed, tens
    of thousands of others who do the right thing day-in and day-out to make
    America a safer place.
        In 1968, in his last campaign, Robert Kennedy said the fight against
    crime ``is a fight to preserve that quality of community which is at the
    root of our greatness.''
        Those we honor today are at the forefront of that fight and,
    therefore, exemplify that greatness. They have performed astonishing
    acts of valor and humanity, crossing the line of fire to rescue downed
    officers; being shot and wounded, yet, managing to return fire and
    subdue an assailant; flying across the Alaska wilderness to
    singlehandedly capture five armed kidnappers; spotting a dangerous gas
    leak and evacuating 200 citizens moments before the apartment building
    exploded.
        These and other amazing stories aren't from the TV shows; they
    actually happened. They represent in dramatic form the kind of
    professional police work that goes on every day. Just last week, three
    brave officers were ambushed and killed and two others were wounded by a
    gunman in Pleasanton, Texas. We mourn their passing and offer our
    prayers for their families and their fellow officers. Every day, every
    officer that puts on a badge knows that he or she, too, may be called
    upon to put life on the line.
        As has already been said by the Deputy Attorney General and by
    Congressman Stupak and by Tom, America today is a safer place as a
    result. We had years, in times past, when the crime rate would go down a
    little, and then it would go up a little, but the trendline was always
    up, with a few welcome downs. But this year, as the Justice Department
    reported this week--excuse me, for last year--the crime rate fell again
    in all categories, in all parts of the

    [[Page 1840]]

    country. The overall crime rate is now at a 26-year low, the murder rate
    at a 31-year low.
        Crime has been dropping, now, for 7 straight years. This is the
    longest continuous decline in the crime rate ever recorded in our
    country. In part, that is because all of us, from the grassroots to
    Washington, DC, have intensified our support for commonsense strategies
    to fight crime and to prevent crime.
        Seven years ago, many people thought the crime rate would go up
    forever. I had had the privilege of working for 12 years as Governor
    and, before that, as attorney general of my State, with law enforcement
    officers. I had the opportunity in 1991 to travel across America and
    talk to community policing and community prosecuting efforts that were
    working, to meet with community leaders that were walking the streets in
    citizens' patrols and had confidence in the local police because of the
    relationships they had. And I had seen what now we see sweeping the
    country: that there was community after community where the crime rate
    was going down if they were doing the right things and if they were
    doing the smart things.
        And so I worked with the Members of Congress who were here then, and
    especially with Senator Biden and
    Senator Leahy, to take what we learned from
    community leaders and from law enforcement officers and turn it into a
    crime bill that would put 100,000 police on the street, as I had
    promised, that would ban assault weapons, something I strongly
    supported. And in addition to that, we passed the Brady bill, which has
    now resulted in over 400,000 people being denied the right to purchase a
    handgun because they've got a problem in their background.
        In 1994, we passed the crime bill with the assault weapons ban; we
    began our COPS program; we toughened penalties; and we expanded programs
    for smart prevention. Now, there was a lot--believe it or not, there was
    a lot of controversy about all this back then. We were told that the
    Brady bill would prevent no criminals from getting guns. We were told
    these police would never appear on the street, and if they did, it
    wouldn't make any difference, never mind the fact that by 1993, violent
    crime had tripled in America over the previous 30 years, while the size
    of our police forces had increased by only 10 percent. And more and more
    police officers were being forced off the street into squad cars with
    their partners because the neighborhoods in which they were working were
    so much more dangerous.
        I want to reiterate to all of you all that the Congress, those that
    voted with me, and I did. The only thing we did was to take what people,
    like the people in uniform behind me, were telling us all over America
    and turn it into law. They said, ``If you will give us the tools, the
    American people will make our streets safer, and we will do our part.''
        Well, 5 years later, as has already been said, we have already
    funded over 100,000 police officers, more than we promised, ahead of
    time and under budget. Five of the 32 officers we honor today, 5 of
    those behind me, were funded under the COPS program.
        Now, in spite of all we come here to celebrate, I doubt if there is
    a person here or a person in our country who thinks the crime rate is
    low enough. I just got off the phone talking to a young woman who was being honored on Oprah Winfrey's TV show today because of her courage in that shooting
    that occurred in a church in Texas a few weeks ago. And she had a young
    friend with Down's syndrome. She pulled the
    child down, threw herself over the child. The child did not understand
    what was going on and just wanted to get up. This young girl sustained a
    wound in her shoulder. So she held the blood in her body with one arm
    and kept the rest of her body on her friend. This is still a great
    country with great young people like that.
        But before we get too self-congratulatory about the crime rate being
    at a 26-year low, we need to ask ourselves--in view of the headlines
    we've had in this country for the last 2 years and in view of the daily
    experiences of the people we honor today--whether there's a single soul
    that believes this is a safe enough country.
        Now, you know, I'm always trying to get people to aim big. When I
    said we were going to put 100,000 cops on the street, people rolled
    their eyes and said it would never happen. When I said we were going to
    cut the deficit in half in 4 years, people rolled their eyes and said it
    would never happen. We've now got the first back-to-back surpluses in 42
    years.
        Things do not happen unless you imagine them happening, and then put
    in place strategies to reach your dreams. I think the time has come for
    America to say, ``Okay, we now know we can get the crime rate down, but
    we

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    have a new goal. We want the freest big country in the world to be the
    safest big country in the world, and we're not going to stop until
    America is the safest big country on the entire face of the Earth.''
    [Applause]
        Now, if we're serious about that, if we're serious about doing
    something to protect the children, like those who have been victimized
    in Littleton and all these other school shootings; the children who were
    shot at that Jewish community center; people like that fine young
    Filipino postman who was murdered in California; or the people who were
    shot in the middle of the country, the young Korean Christian coming out
    of his church, the African-American basketball coach who was murdered;
    all those people in that church in Texas, if we're serious about that--
    you all clapped--then you say, ``Okay, how are we going to get that
    done?''
        Well, first of all, we have to continue to plug the holes in our
    strategy of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and kids. We have
    to close the gun show loophole in the Brady bill. People shouldn't be
    able to buy guns at gun shows and flea markets and not have background
    checks. We ought to ban the importation of these large ammunition clips.
    We ought to do other things which make the things that are already on
    the books--the background checks, the assault weapons ban--work. And I'm
    deeply disappointed that the Congress hasn't acted on it yet.
        The second thing we ought to do is to recognize that for all the
    good work these police have done, we actually need more in the high-
    crime neighborhoods of America. If you want community policing, there
    must be the man- and woman-power there to cover the waterfront. And
    that's why I asked the Congress, I said, ``Look, this 100,000 police
    thing is working. It's inexpensive. We beat the budget. We put the
    people out there. The cities are using them. The counties are using
    them. Let's put 50,000 more out over the next 5 years in the highest
    crime areas, in the toughest areas. And I believe it will work,
    particularly if we also provide new community prosecutors, the best
    crime-fighting technology for the police from better communications
    systems to crime mapping systems. And I know there is bipartisan support
    for this.''
        Senator Biden has gotten enormous
    support for his bill to extend the life of the COPS program for another
    5 years. If Congress passes it, I'll sign it. We almost won, as you
    heard, yesterday in the House of Representatives a vote to fully fund
    our proposal in the first year. Instead, they funded only half the
    police officers, no community prosecutors, and far, far less new crime-
    fighting technology, which is a big issue.
        Now, this doesn't make any sense to me. If you've got a problem that
    you're solving and you know it's still too big and you know what to do
    to make it better and you really believe this ought to be the safest big
    country in the world and we've got the money to do it, why would you
    choose to spend the money on something else instead of making America
    the safest big country in the world? If Congress sends me a crime-
    fighting bill that's a crime spending bill that doesn't have the right
    priorities, I will have to veto it. I want those police on the street.
    They are making America safer, and I am not satisfied, and you shouldn't
    be satisfied until it's the safest country in the world.
        We think there ought to be more police and fewer guns on the street.
    I do not think a strategy of fewer police and more guns is what the
    American people want. And so I ask for their support. And again I say,
    this is not a partisan issue out in America. I am quite sure, standing
    behind me in uniform, there are police officers who vote for members of
    both parties. I would be astonished if they were all Democrats--
    gratified but astonished. [Laughter]
        This is not a partisan issue. When they wheel you into the emergency
    room with a gunshot wound in your body, nobody asks you for your party
    registration before they try to dig the bullet out.
        We know what works. We need to listen to the police. We need to
    listen to NAPO. We need to work together in a bipartisan, even a
    nonpartisan spirit. This is a national security issue, just as much as
    the bill I signed the other day at the Pentagon.
        And every time I think about a child who is victimized, every time I
    have to relive the stories of all these school shootings that we've
    experienced since I've been President, I know that I can't wave a magic
    wand and make it all go away. I know that no matter what we do, there
    will still be people who do bad things and people who are seized by
    demons. But I know one thing: We can make this a lot safer country.
        And when I hear people in the Congress say, ``Well, we just have to
    punish people more. We don't really have to make it harder for them

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    to get guns, even if they're criminals,'' I would point out that we've
    got a higher percentage of people behind bars, serving longer average
    sentences, than anybody else. If that were the answer, why are the
    police telling us to take more sensible measures to restrict access to
    guns?
        And if you have this argument, let me give you a statistic that will
    trump any argument. Forget about deliberate crimes. The death rate from
    accidental shooting of children in America is 9 times higher than that
    of the next 25 biggest industrial countries combined--combined.
        So don't let anybody tell you that we don't need to do more to keep
    guns away from kids and crooks. We do. And don't let anybody tell you
    that we can't do it without interfering with the constitutional right to
    hunt, to engage in proper sports shooting and all those things. We're
    not talking about that. And don't let anybody tell you that 50,000 more
    police on our street, 50,000 more people like those we honor today,
    wouldn't make America a safer place, not only by catching criminals but
    by physically being there and working with community leaders by
    preventing crime in the first place.
        We've got all these opportunities on the edge of this new
    millennium, with the strongest economy in our lifetimes. I don't think
    it's too much to say that we ought to use these opportunities to save
    Social Security and Medicare, to give our kids a world-class education
    with 100,000 teachers, and to keep working to make America the safest
    and the healthiest big country on Earth.
        I am proud that all of you are working with us to achieve that goal.
    And if we keep working, I still think we will get it done.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:25 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Thomas J. Scotto, president,
    National Association of Police Organizations, who introduced the
    President; Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon of Missouri; Mayor Colette
    Lafuente of Poughkeepsie, NY; and Mary Beth Talley, who protected her
    friend Heather McDonald during the shooting at Wedgewood Baptist Church
    in Fort Worth, TX.