KYW Newsradio Team Coverage
by Mike Dunn and Tony Hanson
Vice president Joseph Biden and US attorney general Eric Holder were in Philadelphia on Tuesday, discussing federal stimulus funding for law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Governors Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, Jack Markell of Delaware, Martin O'Malley of Maryland, and Jon Corzine of New Jersey were on hand, along with Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey.
Biden (above) and other officials were gathering in Mayor Nutter's official reception room in City Hall to announce the allocation of $1 billion across the country to help municipalities avoid having to lay off police officers.
Flanked by Philadelphia police officers, Biden said that of all the trillions of dollars in stimulus money flowing out of Washington, none are more important that these billion dollars earmarked for law enforcement:
"One thousand police departments are going to be receiving one billion dollars over three years."
Philadelphia will be receiving funding for 50 police officers. The feds will cover their salaries for three years, as long as the city promises to pay for a fourth year.
Police commissioner Charles Ramsey:
"There is an out-year impact, which is typical for grants like this, that for at least one year past the funding you have to maintain that strength. So that is your impact that has to be figured in to future budgets."
Ramsey says any new hires will go into patrol. And Gov. Rendell was pleased but restrained:
"This is a good start, for Philadelphia and for Pennsylvania. It’s a good start."
New Jersey is line for $29 million for new officers as well.
But many cities and states that sought the help will be disappointed. The aid is just a fraction of what police departments across the country had hoped to get.
For every $1 to be delivered, another $7 in requests will go unanswered under the grant program, dubbed Community Oriented Policing Services ("COPS").
Four major US cities are finding this out the hard way: New York, Houston, Seattle, and Pittsburgh are among those that will not get money because the US Justice Department decided other parts of the country simply needed it more, according to government officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details publicly. They said about 7,000 state and local agencies applied for aid under the COPS program that is part of the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year. Of those, only about 1,000 were approved.
Each state is entitled to at least $5 million in COPS money.
There will be plenty of winners, though, in the COPS grant program:
- The Philadelphia Police Department will get money to create or keep 50 law enforcement jobs.
- The police department in Rochester, NY will get money to create or save about 30 law enforcement jobs.
- Kalamazoo, Mich. will get nearly $2 million for 10 officer positions.
The roughly 1,000 places getting COPS aid also include: Mobile, Ala.; Mesa, Ariz.; Tulare County, Calif.; Monroe County, Fla.; the Seminole Tribe of Florida; Baltimore; Providence, RI;Salt Lake City, Utah; and Huntington, W.Va.
As local governments bleed red ink and officials look to plug budget gaps, they have swamped the government with a record number of requests for aid under the program. As a result, the Justice Department decided the most worthy cities were those that faced serious budgetary problems and those that have relatively high crime rates.
New York is less needy by both measures, officials said, because of its low crime rate and stable city budget. New York also has the largest single police force in the country, and received some money -- about $29 million -- from a different stimulus program earlier this year.
But the Big Apple also has a touchy history with Washington when it comes to federal aid for police costs. In 2006, the Bush administration sparked an uproar when it slashed homeland security money for New York.
Rep. Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, criticized the COPS decision:
"It is disgraceful for New York City to be shut out just because the NYPD is doing such a great job under trying circumstances and Mayor (Mike) Bloomberg is doing such a wonderful job of managing the city's finances," said King, adding that the city "is the No. 1 terrorist target and should not be penalized for its success."
Bloomberg, in a statement, called the decision "disappointing, to put it mildly. To punish our police department because they have driven down crime with fewer resources shows the backwards incentive system that is sometimes at work in Washington."
He said the 9/11 attacks "were attacks on the nation and we should be receiving strong federal support for the NYPD to fight terrorism in the nation's largest city."
Officials familiar with Tuesday's announcement said the Justice Department estimates the grant awards will help hire 3,818 new officers, and retain 881 positions that would otherwise be lost to budgetary belt-tightening.
That makes a total of 4,699 officers -- still short of the program's announced goal of hiring 5,000 officers.
Under the COPS program, the federal government pays the officers' salary and benefits for three years, after which the local government is responsible for the costs.
Local police chiefs have been waiting anxiously for months to learn what they will receive, and understood even before the decisions were announced that many of them would be disappointed.
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