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 In Delaware, like everywhere else in the country, the cops are doing more with less on a shoestring budget in a “post 9/11 world.” The good news is that some of the more responsible politicians on the national scene have been advocating a return to the common sense approach that brought so much crime reduction success in the 1990s.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the country could receive a major shot in the arm in the coming months if legislation Congress has passed becomes law.
The U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have passed bills allocating millions of dollars for the hiring and training of local law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, the Bush administration views spending money on public safety as “big government” as opposed to responsible domestic policy, and President Bush has promised to veto both pieces of legislation. “With shrinking budgets in towns and cities, it’s becoming a crunch to add officers,” Newport Police Chief Michael Capriglione, who chairs the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council, told reporters with Associated Press.
“Cities don’t want to raise taxes, but this opens the door to hire officers. It’s a great jump start for police departments to put officers on the streets.” A great deal of the funding that had been earmarked for COPS during the Clinton administration has been either slashed or diverted to homeland security since 2001.
COPS program author Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., said that is hurting security and safety throughout the country. “Before being slashed by the Bush administration, COPS funding provided for safer streets in Delaware and our nation,” Sen. Biden said.
Under the $660 million Senate COPS bill passed recently, $550 million would be used by law enforcement agencies to pay for training and equipment, such as bulletproof vests, crime lab improvements and forensic science advances. Many local agencies said that COPS grants helped them field more cops as local populations grew.
The population boom that has enveloped Smyrna, Delaware in the first half of this decade has nearly doubled the town’s size, from 5,700 in 2000 to more than 9,000 today. Five of the six COPS-funded officers Smyrna has secured were added to the town’s 21-officer force during that period. “The COPS program made a huge impact in Smyrna, enabling us to keep up with the population growth,” Smyrna Police Chief Richard Baldwin said.
“We used the grants to stay ahead of the curve. “The town has held onto every officer we’ve gotten through the program, which accomplishes the exact goal of the grants.” The Senate bill passed included $2.77 million for Delaware law enforcement agencies, which would not be part of the COPS program.
That funding would provide: • $1 million for the Delaware State Police, for the statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS); • $1 million for Delaware State University to test and evaluate a mobile crime scene and evidence-tracking system; • $400,000 for Children and Families First, to continue programs to reduce truancy in New Castle and Kent counties; • $250,000 for sobriety checkpoints. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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