HotmailPolice seeking record aid to avoid layoffs
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Spike in demand
Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, said this year's response to the grant program "has provided us with a true understanding of the difficulties facing law enforcement departments today."
In part, the spike in demand is a result of the change from a Republican to a Democratic administration. Through the Bush years, the COPS and related programs were gradually cut away by Republicans who saw them as wasteful and argued that the money was used to hire fewer cops than Democrats claimed.
Democrats counter that the COPS grant program deserves some credit for the large reductions in crime in the 1990's and thus has proved its effectiveness.
In addition, unlike former President Bill Clinton's version, the Obama program will pay not only for new hires but also to retain cops who might otherwise be laid off.
Around the country, cities are scrambling to keep police on the beat without raising taxes.
In St. Louis, officials recently said they may have to cut 105 police positions if the department doesn't get enough federal aid. If those cuts are made, the city's police force would be smaller than it has been in about a century.
Mitchel Herckis of the National League of Cities said the initial COPS program was designed to expand local police forces to fight rising crime — Clinton promised to put 100,000 more cops on the street — but the new version has been retooled to try to just hold departments together in tough times.
Emergency response staff is often the last thing city officials want to cut, he said.
"Across the country, holding on to officers is a huge deal for many cities and towns," he said. "Keeping those essential services for folks is the top priority."
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