Bart Stupak: “I am here tonight and I will be joined by some of my colleagues on the Democratic side to talk about the community…”

“I am here tonight and I will be joined by some of my colleagues on the Democratic side to talk about the community policing program and the proposal that will be before us later this week to do away with the community policing program and the 100,000 cops as the President has outlined in the past, in last year's crime bill. So the special order tonight will deal with community policing commonly called cops on the beat or Clinton cops. Today at a press conference there were representatives from police organizations all over the country, mostly the FOP and the National Association of Police Organizations which represent most of the rank- and-file police officers in the country. They spoke articulately of the need to get police officers on the street. The program has been a win-win situation not just for the police officers, not just for fighting crime but especially for the communities in which they serve. Last night in this Chamber we spoke, a number of us, about community policing, how you need to restore the trust, confidence and faith in the police with the specific area they serve in order to form a working partnership, working in concert to help with community policing, to combat the crime elements that they face in their communities.”