Herb Kohl: “I rise today with Senators Feinstein, Leahy, Reid, and others to introduce the COPS Improvement Act of 2009. This…”

“I rise today with Senators Feinstein, Leahy, Reid, and others to introduce the COPS Improvement Act of 2009. This legislation would reauthorize one of the Department of Justice's most successful efforts to fight crime, the Community Oriented Policing Services, COPS, program. The success story of the COPS program has been told many times, but it is worth repeating. The goal in 1994 was to put an additional 100,000 cops on the beat. Over the next 5 years, from 1995 to 1999, the COPS Universal Hiring Program distributed nearly $1 billion in grants to State and local law enforcement agencies to hire additional law enforcement officers, allowing us to achieve our goal of 100,000 new officers. Common sense told the American people that having more police walking the beat would lead to less crime, and our experience with the COPS program proved that to be true. This unprecedented effort to put more police officers in our communities coincided with significant reductions in crime during the 1990s. As the number of police rose, we saw 8 consecutive years of reductions in crime. Few programs can claim such a clear record of success. Unfortunately, the success of the COPS program led some to declare victory. Beginning in 2001, funding for the COPS program came under attack. President Bush proposed cuts to the COPS program in each of his budget requests, and his proposed cuts to State and local law enforcement programs has totaled well over $1 billion in recent years.”