I found this article in the Miami Herald that reports on what appears to be the end of the funding of the COPS Program. The program actually started with President George H.W. Bush’s Administration, it was modified by the Clinton Administration with the goal of putting 100,000 new police officers on the streets. According to the COPS Office, that goal has been accomplished.
There is more to the story than just putting the cops on the streets though. The “carrot” on the string required law enforcement agencies applying for officers, money and equipment to develop and utilize programs to better work with their respective communities. Terms like “community policing” and “problem oriented policing” became common in the vernacular of criminal justice practitioners, politicians and the communities they served.
The result was a remarkable transition in many places of lower crime rates and a more engaged community when dealing with quality of life issues and crime. Opening the lines of communication between the police and the community raised a higher expectation of the police to perform and to perform in an acceptable manner. In other words, a higher level of accountability.
Part of the justification of moving away from the funding of the COPS Office is that the more pressing needs of homeland security are putting a strain on the availability of funding. I would submit that strong partnerships between the community and their law enforcement officers is the best line of defense against acts of domestic terrorism and other types of crime.
The demands of local law enforcement agencies since 9/11 to provide the additional investigative and response mechanisms necessary to deal with the threat of increased acts of violence already have begun to overshadow the gains made over the past fifteen years.
The law enforcement community must work hard to maintain their perspective and realize that we must not sever our ties with our respective communities in the name of security. We must not allow the discontinuation of the COPS program to symbolize a loss of the progress we’ve made.