[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 19 (Monday, May 17, 1999)]
[Pages 871-873]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Proposed ``21st Century Law Enforcement Safety 
Act''

May 12, 1999

    Thank you very much. Please be seated; and good afternoon. Madam 
Attorney General, Mr. Holder, Officer Hall, Senator Leahy, Congressman 
Stupak, Senator Biden, Senator Specter. There are now over 50 Members of 
Congress here, I think; at least that many had accepted to come. And we 
see our mayor there, Mayor Williams; Mayor Schmoke; Mayor Rendell, and 
other officials: Associate Attorney General Fisher; Treasury Under 
Secretary Enforcement Jim Johnson; and the Director of our COPS Office, 
Joe Brann. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today, and 
welcome.
    Five years ago this summer, after a remarkable effort in Congress 
which required, among other things, the breaking of an intense 
filibuster, with the support of many of the people here today, I was 
able to sign into law a crime bill that was the first of its kind: a 
comprehensive bill that funded local solutions to local problems and 
enhanced the promising practice of community policing; a bill that also 
banned assault weapons and demanded tougher punishment for the toughest 
criminals and provided innovative prevention strategies to keep our 
young people out of trouble in the first place.
    It was a crime bill that brought our laws into line with our oldest 
values, requiring all of us to take responsibility at every level of 
government and every community in America to prevent crime and protect 
our families. I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Senator Biden 
who is here today for his extraordinary efforts in what seems like, at 
once, a long time ago and only yesterday.
    Today we know that the strategy embodied in the crime bill, which 
was really written by local police officers and law enforcement 
officials, is working. The murder rate is down to its lowest level in 30 
years; violent crime has dropped 20 percent in the last 6 years alone; 
and in many smaller ways, reducing crimes like vandalism and littering 
that undermine the quality of life. We are beginning to repair the 
social fabric and restore civility to everyday life.
    There are many reasons for this success. The Brady bill has stopped 
over 250,000 illegal handgun sales to felons, fugitives, and stalkers. 
The assault weapons ban has helped; so have tougher penalties and the 
waning of the devastating crack epidemic.
    But police chiefs, politicians, and people on the street all agree 
that the most important factor has been community policing. After all, 
until the crime bill passed, the violent crime had tripled over the 
preceding 30 years, but the size of our police forces had increased by 
only 10 percent. Where police officers, therefore, used to cruise 
anonymously through the streets, now community police officers walk the 
beat and know the people in the neighborhoods, becoming involved in the 
lives of the people they protect and involving them in the fight against 
crime.
    Community policing has worked miracles in many of our cities, where 
violent crime once was out of control and law-abiding citizens 
mistrusted police often as much as they feared gangs. Now, in cities and 
communities all across America, residents work with police officers 
forming neighborhood watches, banding together against drug dealers, 
building connections that are the core of community life and the heart 
of civil society.
    When I signed the crime bill I pledged to help communities all over 
our Nation fund

[[Page 872]]

100,000 community police officers by the year 2000. Today we are keeping 
the pledge.
    Since 1994, the COPS program has funded 99,000 new police officers, 
over half already on the beat. Today I am pleased to announce the latest 
COPS grants, over $96 million for nearly 1,500 police officers in more 
than 500 communities. This will bring us to over 100,000 community 
police officers funded, ahead of schedule and under budget. And I thank 
you for all of your efforts in that regard.
    In making America's thin blue line thicker and stronger, our Nation 
will be safer. But you and I know our job is far from finished. Last 
week I sent new legislation to Congress to close the loopholes in our 
gun laws, raise the age of handgun ownership to 21, hold adults liable 
for keeping, recklessly keeping guns and ammunition within the reach of 
children, and asking for background checks for the purchase of 
explosives.
    Today I will send to Congress a new crime bill for the 21st century, 
to advance our crime-fighting strategy in several respects and build on 
the successes of the 1994 crime act. We know what works, and we should 
make certain that those efforts continue and are expanded.
    We know, too, that crime is still too high in too many communities. 
And the next stage of our crime-fighting strategy must focus with 
renewed intensity on the high crime areas, to break the cycle of 
violence on our meanest streets. Finally, we know we face new threats as 
a result of the new technologies of the information age.
    So here's what the bill does. First, and most important, it expands 
the COPS program, helping communities to hire up to 50,000 more police 
officers, especially those hardest hit by crime. It will help them hire 
local prosecutors who work much as community police officers do in the 
neighborhoods where they can make the biggest difference. The bill will 
also give 21st century tools to our police officers to fight the 
criminals who, themselves, increasingly use technology to commit crimes 
and to avoid capture. The bill will provide grants to help communities 
encourage schools, faith-based groups, and citizens, themselves, in 
restoring peace to our neighborhood. School districts can use the grants 
for preventive efforts that will reduce the likelihood of tragic 
violence.
    The second thing the bill will do is to help steer young people away 
from crime and gangs by strengthening antitruancy and mentoring 
programs, by cracking down on gang members who intimidate witnesses.
    Third, the bill will help to break the cycle of crime and drugs. 
Three out of four people in the criminal justice system have drug 
problems. If we treat those drug problems, we can cut the crime rate 
dramatically. The bill says to prisoners, ``If you stay on drugs, you 
stay behind bars; to those on parole, if you want to keep your freedom, 
you must stay free of drugs.''
    Fourth, the crime bill will do more to protect our most vulnerable 
citizens. It will punish retirement rip-off artists, nursing home 
operators who abuse and neglect their residents, telemarketers who prey 
on older Americans. It will toughen penalties for people who commit 
violent crimes in the presence of children and reauthorize the Violence 
Against Women Act.
    Finally, the crime bill will strengthen our efforts to combat 
international crime and terrorism. The threat of weapons of mass 
destruction is real and increasing in an age of technological change and 
open borders. The bill will make it a Federal crime to possess the 
biological agents used in such weapons without a legitimate, peaceful 
purpose.
    This is the kind of comprehensive approach that has brought crime 
down 6 years in a row now. It is the kind of tough but smart approach we 
need in the new century. I am pleased that so many Members of the 
Congress are committed to move this agenda forward this year. I thank 
the Democrats who have come out in support of the legislation, and I 
hope that, as in 1994, we will enjoy strong support from Republican 
Members who share our objectives. And I thank those who are here today. 
I look forward to working with members of both parties to protect our 
families and to make our communities safe.
    Now, as you all know, this is Police Week, and you see a number of 
police officers behind me and out in the audience. It's a week where we 
pay tribute to our Nation's law enforcement officers. Without their 
courage,

[[Page 873]]

commitment, and ability to meet the challenges of our time and to help 
keep our streets safe, life would be much more difficult in America.
    It is fitting, therefore, that the next speaker is a young community 
police officer from the Wilmington, Delaware, Police Department, funded 
through our COPS program, who used to be, I might add, a fifth-grade 
teacher and who truly represents the changing face and the bright future 
of policing in America. Officer Jonathan Hall was a teacher when he 
decided to become a police officer, but he still finds time to be a 
mentor to at-risk young people. And he takes every chance he can to talk 
to children about how they can protect themselves from crime.
    Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming a man who 
symbolizes what we have been working to bring to America for the last 6 
years, Officer Jonathan Hall.

Note: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Anthony A. Williams of 
Washington, DC; Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, MD; and Mayor Edward 
Rendell of Philadelphia, PA.