PRINTER'S NO. 2987
No. 536 Session of 2007
INTRODUCED BY MANN, BELFANTI, BENNINGTON, BRENNAN, CALTAGIRONE,
CASORIO, COHEN, DALEY, DePASQUALE, D. EVANS, FRANKEL,
FREEMAN, GEIST, GEORGE, GIBBONS, GINGRICH, GOODMAN, HARKINS,
HORNAMAN, JOSEPHS, KOTIK, KULA, LONGIETTI, MAHONEY, MARSHALL,
McILVAINE SMITH, MELIO, MOYER, PALLONE, PARKER, PETRONE,
READSHAW, REICHLEY, RUBLEY, SCAVELLO, SIPTROTH, K. SMITH,
SOLOBAY, WALKO, WOJNAROSKI AND YOUNGBLOOD, DECEMBER 11, 2007
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS,
DECEMBER 11, 2007
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging the President of the United States and Congress to
2 provide the necessary funding for the Community Oriented
3 Policing Services Program.
4 WHEREAS, Community policing focuses on crime and social
5 disorder through the delivery of police services that include
6 aspects of traditional law enforcement, as well as prevention,
7 problem solving, community engagement and partnerships; and
8 WHEREAS, The community policing model balances reactive
9 responses to calls for service with proactive problem solving
10 centered on the causes of crime and disorder; and
11 WHEREAS, Community policing requires police and citizens to
12 join together as partners in the course of both identifying and
13 effectively addressing crime and disorder; and
14 WHEREAS, The Violent Crime Control and Enforcement Act, which
15 created the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or
1 COPS, to distribute and monitor $8.8 billion was signed into law
2 in 1994 by President William Jefferson Clinton; and
3 WHEREAS, COPS, in 1994 alone, awarded $200 million to fund an
4 additional 2,700 community policing professionals; and
5 WHEREAS, Since 1998, COPS has been at the front line in the
6 war against methamphetamine; and
7 WHEREAS, By 1999, only the fifth year since the inception of
8 the COPS program, COPS had funded 100,000 community policing
9 professionals and, as of today, has allowed more than 117,000
10 police officers to patrol our communities; and
11 WHEREAS, On September 11, 2001, COPS supported and assisted
12 the New York Police Department and the Arlington County Police
13 Department as they responded to the attacks on our nation; and
14 WHEREAS, President George W. Bush has threatened to veto any
15 appropriation bill that would reauthorize the funds necessary to
16 maintain this program; and
17 WHEREAS, The proposed reauthorization of the COPS program
18 would put an additional 50,000 police officers on the streets
19 across our great country, including 1,500 in the Commonwealth of
20 Pennsylvania; and
21 WHEREAS, The reauthorization of the COPS program would also
22 provide an additional $350 million a year for technology grants
23 for police agencies and $200 million annually to hire more
24 prosecutors; therefore be it
25 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
26 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge President George W. Bush and
27 Congress to reauthorize this vital program; and be it further
28 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
29 the President of the United States, to the presiding officers of
30 the United States Senate and to each Senator from Pennsylvania.
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