[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 3 (Monday, January 19, 1998)]
[Pages 78-80]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Community Policing in Jamaica, New York

January 15, 1998

    Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner, Congressman Nadler, 
Congresswoman Maloney, thank you for being here. And I want to thank our 
Associate Attorney General, Ray Fisher, for coming up with me today.
    Let me say that, first, I want to congratulate all the men and women 
in the police force in New York City, the ones who are standing behind 
me, the ones who are out there in the audience, and the ones who are out 
there on the beat. There has been an amazing turnaround in America's 
fight against crime in the last few years. It has basically been brought 
about with a new philosophy rooted in community police officers, better 
prevention, smarter and tougher punishment.
    The Mayor and I have shared that philosophy. He and many others in 
both parties worked hard for the passage of the crime bill

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in 1994. And it was a fascinating debate I'll never forget as long as I 
live. Because the crime bill was essentially written by law enforcement 
officials--I see Tom nodding his head--grassroots law enforcement 
officials across America, there was an astonishing amount of unanimity 
about it among Republicans and Democrats at the grassroots level. The 
only political problems we had with the crime bill were those that were 
basically occasioned, frankly, by the NRA and others when we got to 
supplementing rhetoric over reality at the debate of the crime bill. But 
now the evidence is in, and we know who was right and who wasn't.
    The efforts embodied in the crime bill and the policies of cities 
all across America have brought the crime rate down to a 25-year low. 
That's an astonishing achievement. In the last 5 years alone, there's 
been a 22 percent drop in the murder rate nationwide, a 16 percent drop 
in the rate of violent crime. In neighborhoods where children couldn't 
walk to school alone, where elderly people double-locked themselves in 
their homes, people are beginning to feel confident and safe again. And 
community policing is at the heart of the new philosophy. It has done 
more to bring the crime rate down than anything else--the proper, wise 
deployment of police resources in a community fashion to prevent crime 
and to catch criminals.
    Since the crime bill passed, we've come a long way toward putting 
our goal of 100,000 police on the street. You heard the Mayor say how 
many there were in New York City. We have to finish the job, however. 
We're about two-thirds of the way there, since 1994. We've funded about 
67,000 police officers.
    Today I'm pleased to announce that we are going to help New York 
City hire and deploy 1,600 more community police officers. With the new 
police officers, we now helped to fund more than 70,000 of the 100,000 
community police across America. And I want you to know we intend to 
keep going until we've got all 100,000 on the beat. We want to get it 
done ahead of schedule. In the big cities like New York where the 
problems of crime and drugs and guns once seemed absolutely 
insurmountable, real progress has been made.
    Now, there's still a lot to do. The Mayor talked about the drug 
problem. Our budget coming up has more funds for drug education, drug 
prevention, and drug treatment. I issued an Executive order just a 
couple of days ago relating to drug treatment in the State 
penitentiaries of the country.
    The New York Times reported today that some cities, particularly 
smaller cities, are still struggling; cities that never felt the kind of 
problems you came to take for granted, or at least--not for granted--at 
least a part of your daily life before, and perhaps aren't as well 
equipped as you are to handle them. We have more to do to clean up our 
cities, to get more guns and gangs and drugs off the streets, and more 
police officers on the streets. But if we keep going we'll get the job 
done.
    I'd also like to say, we all know that we have an unresolved problem 
with crime by young people, juveniles. While that rate seems to be 
dropping now, it has not gone down nearly as much as the overall crime 
rate. And I'm convinced we have to do more to deal with these young 
people in the hours where most of this crime is committed, which is 
after school but before their folks get home. We're committed to working 
hard with our cities to help to deal with that.
    So today is a good day. Hundreds of more police officers from New 
York City--it means a lower crime rate for a city that has proved that 
the police can do the job, given the kind of community support we need 
and the kind of farsighted policies that I think we have to pursue 
together as Americans.
    So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. Thanks to the Members 
of Congress. And my thanks to the people in the police department.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:05 p.m. in the press room in Port 
Authority Building #14 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In his 
remarks, he referred to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner 
Howard Safir of New York City, and Thomas J. Scotto, president, National 
Association of Police Organizations.

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