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Even though their pleas will likely fall on deaf ears in Washington D.C., State Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez joined law enforcement and other officials outside Clifton City Hall in New Jersey recently to call on lawmakers to fund a program that would allow police departments to hire more officers.
Pascrell and Menendez made impassioned pleas to both House and Senate members to include $200 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program when finalizing the Justice Department's spending bill.
At the time this article was written federal lawmakers were expected to finish and vote on the bill before sending it to President Obama to sign.
The COPS Hiring Program is critical at a time when retirements and layoffs have depleted local police departments, Pascrell told reporters.
"I firmly believe that fewer cops on the beat mean more crime on the streets," he said.
Menendez said the program would help maintain public safety in municipalities that have thinned the ranks of the force due to budget cuts and deficits.
"We call them heroes, but turn our back on them when they need us," Pascrell said sounding very much like a police officer.
New Jersey alone has lost 4,000 police officers in the past two years because of retirements and layoffs. In addition, attacks on state and local pensions have caused a mass wave of retirements before changes affecting pensions occur.
In Clifton, the police department has 128 officers. That's 30 less than they had just last year.
As the result of meeting the obligations to former employees in terms of pensions, the city can not hire new officers without help from the COPS program.
The COPS Hiring grants are "one of the few things we can look forward to help us," Clifton Chief Gary F. Giardina told reporters with NorthJersey.com.
In Clifton, Giardina says he believes there's a direct correlation between the reduction in officers and rising rates of crime.
Clifton saw crime spikes between 5 and 6 percent this year. The largest increase was rape, which increased seven percent.
"I ask for patience because of response time," Giardina said. "We can't answer certain calls the way we did, because of lack of manpower."
Funding for the COPS Hiring Program was approved by the Senate in a spending bill this year. But the House of Representatives cut the program in its version of the spending bill. Lawmakers are trying this week to reach a resolution in a final version.
Since its inception in 1994, the COPS Hiring Program has provided funding to hire 123,800 officers across the country.
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