FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1995                           (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                 AG RENO TO BE IN MAINE ON FRIDAY
       FOR COMMUNITY POLICING EVENT AND POLICE SWEARING-IN
                                
    Visit Comes As Congress Seeks To Cut Police Hiring Funds 
     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno will spend
Friday in Maine to learn from Portland's community policing
successes, watch as new federally-funded police officers are sworn-in in 
Waterville, and defend the crime bill's program to put
100,000 police on the streets against Congressional attempts to
defund it.

     The 1994 crime bill provided $8.8 billion to hire 100,000 new
community police officers, and funding for more than 16,000 new
officers has already been announced -- including 88 in communities
across Maine.  Five of those officers will be sworn in Friday. 

     Legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives
would scrap the program, and the Senate is expected to take up the
bill shortly.

     The following is her public schedule:

     Friday, March 24
     9:30 am   Community Policing event w/ Police Chief Chitwood
               Parkside Community Policing Station, Portland
               Intersection of Sherman Street & Deering Avenue
               Open to press
               Reno to be available to press immediately after

     11:30 am  Lunch with Governor King, U.S. Attorney McCloskey, 
               AG Ketterer, Public Safety Commissioner Scholfield
               Governor's Mansion
               Closed to press except for pool spray at beginning

     1 pm      Attend Graduation of new community police officers
               Maine Criminal Justice Academy, Waterville
               Thomas College on West River Road
               Open to press

     2 pm      Return to Washington, D.C.


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