Patsy T. Mink: “I rise in opposition to H.R. 728. It represents a departure from what has been argued from the other side of the…”

“I rise in opposition to H.R. 728. It represents a departure from what has been argued from the other side of the aisle--give the people what they want. Last year's anticrime bill has provided nearly 8,000 communities, rural to urban and large to small, funds to hire 14,622 new police officers through the COPS program. These communities have submitted COPS requests because community-oriented policing has been shown to work to make neighborhoods safer. The American people do not want Congress to dismantle this much needed 4-month-old program by absorbing it into a giant block grant, without targeted allocations. The National Association of Police Organizations has stated its strong belief that unless funds are given directly to law enforcement agencies for police hiring, the funds will be diverted elsewhere. The National Sheriffs' Association and Law Enforcement Steering Committee, which represents 450,000 law enforcement officers nationally, echoes NAPO's sentiments. The Police Executive Research Forum opposes H.R. 728 because it fails to require that funds be spent on community policing and will force police organizations to compete with every other community group or service agency that has some relation to public safety. H.R. 728 clearly symbolizes a ``pass the buck'' approach which will not ensure that Federal funds will go toward crime control and turns a deaf ear to local law enforcement experts.”