Jay Rockefeller: “I am proud today with Senator Biden and several of our colleagues to introduce a bill to reauthorize the Community…”

“I am proud today with Senator Biden and several of our colleagues to introduce a bill to reauthorize the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program, which has been so vitally important to my State of West Virginia. The bill authorizes $1.15 billion to fund operations of the U.S. Department of Justice's COPS Office and to put 50,000 new police officers on the streets of the United States through 2011. I am a cosponsor of this bill because I understood how important this program could be when we passed it originally as part of President Clinton's 1994 Crime bill, because I've seen how important it is to my State of West Virginia, and because I know that there are few government programs that have done more to make the whole country safer and more secure. President Clinton had a goal of placing 100,000 new police officers on our streets. As hard as it is to believe, there are opponents of the COPS program. In an attempt to defend their desire to end the program, they are quick to point out that the goal has been met, and even exceeded. They would have you believe that the Federal Government should get out of the business of helping local law enforcement do their jobs. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when police departments have taken on seemingly innumerable crucial responsibilities in addition to their roles in fighting crime, plans to close out this program have been included in the President's budget each year since he took office.…”