(Washington, DC)—Today, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II joined a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives to pass H.R. 1700, the COPS Reauthorization Act of 2007. Co-sponsored by Cleaver, this measure is designed to help local law enforcement agencies place an additional 50,000 police officers on the beat over the next six years. 
 

“Almost 12 years ago, I remember standing with Mayor Giuliani and next to President Clinton as he described the first COPS program. The program encouraged mayors and police chiefs from around the nation to build a partnership with the federal government. I can tell you first-hand, the partnership really worked. The federal government gave communities the resources that they needed to put more police on the streets. Municipalities, like ours,  took responsibility to train and deploy those officers. In Kansas City alone, we put over 100 more police officers on the streets. The genius of community policing is that it inspires neighborhoods to fight against crime and change the habits of the heart. I can not tell you how proud I am to vote to reinvigorate and renew the COPS hiring grants program,” said Congressman Cleaver.

“Not only did the program work for Kansas City, when I served as Mayor, it worked for communities across our nation. From 1995 to 2005, this program helped local law enforcement agencies hire 117,000 additional police officers – we saw the difference in our neighborhoods. Over those 10 years, Missouri’s Fifth District received over $29 million in COPS hiring grants funding, which enabled our District to hire an additional 354 police officers,” said Cleaver.

In 2006, the Republican-led Congress completely eliminated the hiring grants program. H.R. 1700 authorizes the hiring of 151 new police officers in Missouri’s Fifth District — much needed help to reverse the trend of escalating violence.

Congressman Cleaver, while mayor of Kansas City, helped write the original COPS hiring grants program with President Clinton. After its passage, our nation experienced a significant drop in crime rates. A nonpartisan GAO study concluded between 1998 and 2000, the hiring grants were responsible for reducing crimes by about 200,000 to 225,000 crimes – one third of which were violent.   

Earlier this year, the Police Executive Research Forum, a prominent law enforcement association, released a report which found that violent crimes rose by double digit percentages over the last two years.  Among the cities surveyed, since 2005, 71 percent had an increase in homicides, 80 percent saw robberies rise and 67 percent reported an increase in aggravated assaults with guns.

“We have witnessed that crime is on the rise. Our community has seen record homicide rates in the last few years. As funding for police officers has decreased and the economy stagnated, crime has increased. More officers working with more communities are more vital than ever,” concluded Cleaver.  “This bill – by authorizing COPS hiring grants, COPS technology grants, and community prosecutor grants – is going to once again give our local law enforcement agencies the tools they need to fight crime block-by-block. I hope the Senate acts on this bill quickly, and the President signs it.”

This legislation has been endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Belton, Raymore and Peculiar, Missouri. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee.