News From…
Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 6, 2007 |
CONTACT: Jamie McInerney (202) 225-6131 |
| WASHINGTON – Today Congressman Dennis Cardoza announced a Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant of $112,339 for the City of Livingston. The grant was awarded through COPS Secure Our Schools program, which provides funds to improve security at schools and on school grounds.
“Our community needs more police officers and crime fighting resources, especially at our schools where our children need a safe environment in which they can learn,” said Cardoza. “This May I was proud to help pass the COPS Reauthorization Act, which will put almost seven thousand additional officers on California’s streets.”
The COPS Reauthorization Act, passed by the House of Representatives on May 15, 2007, reinvigorated the COPS program by providing funding to hire over 50,000 new officers nationally and resources to improve security services throughout our communities. Since 2001 the Administration had severely cut and eventually eliminated funding for the program.
“The COPS program, created in 1994, is an enormously successful and popular program,” Rep. Cardoza pointed out. “From 1995 to 2005, this program helped local law enforcement agencies hire 117,000 additional police officers – which led to significantly reduced crime across the country. Over those 10 years, California received over one billion dollars in COPS hiring grants, which enabled our state to hire an additional fifteen thousand police officers.”
Secure Our Schools is one of several COPS initiatives to enhance school safety. COPS has provided nearly $930 million to state and local law enforcement agencies to hire and train more than 6,300 school resource officers. The Secure Our Schools program will provide up to 50 percent of the total cost for municipalities to install metal detectors, locks, lighting, and other equipment to help deter crime. The grants can also be used to pay half of the cost of security assessments, security training, and other measures that will provide a significant improvement in security.
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