[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 42 (Monday, October 25, 1999)]
[Pages 2102-2106]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Honoring the National Association of Police Organizations' ``Top 
Cops''

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.

[[Page 2103]]

    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 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

[[Page 2104]]

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 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 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.''
    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,

[[Page 2105]]

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 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.

[[Page 2106]]

    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.