Law Enforcement Leaders Denounce Congress For Cuts In Policing Grants

Crime Control Digest, Nov 18, 2005

Local law enforcement leaders nationwide issued denunciations of Congress and the Bush administration for deep cuts in federal support for first responders to crime and terrorism.

The two largest organizations of police chiefs and sheriffs issued a joint statement, claiming that the Justice Department's budget for the current fiscal year would hinder essential law enforcement operations.

The groups said the federal reduction in support for local law enforcement that is now in its fourth year has become "an alarming trend."

President Bush has denounced Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and Local Law Enforcement Block Grant programs as wasteful or as having accomplished their objectives.

Besides cutting programs like LLEBG and Byrne, the new budget consolidates them and others into a Justice Assistance Grant program (JAG) that the White House Office of Management and Budget believes will make them easier to cut in the future.

Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said Congress and the president rolled back their support at a time when the federal government has ramped up its demand for resources from local law enforcement on a range of federal priorities from combating terrorism to curbing international drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

"This budget cuts funding for critical law enforcement assistance programs by almost 30 percent, forcing many departments to continue using antiquated and inefficient communications equipment and others to lay off officers," said Viverette, who is chief of the Gaithersburg, Md., Police Department.

Tuscaloosa, Ala., Sheriff Edmund M. "Ted" Sexton, Sr., president of the National Sheriffs' Association, called the new budget "unacceptable."

Since the 9/11 attacks and the shift in federal priority to counterterrorism, the administration and Congress have reduced COPS and programs now consolidated into JAG by 64 percent from nearly $2.6 billion to $895 million.

The sheriffs' and chiefs associations pledged to take up the fight in the next budget cycle that begins in February to try to reinvigorate weakened programs.

Many chiefs and sheriffs attribute the downward trend in crime that began more than a decade ago to the surge of federal support that put 100,000 law enforcement officers on the streets, and armed them with technology and forensics support.

Although the appropriations bill boosts the Justice Department budget by about 3 percent in the current fiscal year, the spending plan puts all of the cost of the increased war on terror on reductions in federal support for state and local police.

Congress partially offset some of the losses in the Homeland security budget with an allocation of $400 million to state and local law enforcement for terrorism and firstresponder purposes.

The Homeland security Department budget also includes $550 million in grants that law enforcement can seek. But the program is also open to fire, medical and other emergency responders.

(Editor's note: Crime Control Digest published details of the Justice Department budget in the Nov. 11 issue.)

Inf.: http://Thomas.loc.gov, Justice Department budget, HR 2862; Homeland security Department budget, HR 2360.