A press release from the office of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar:

Washington –- U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar last week announced that she is co-sponsoring Sen. Joe Biden’s (D-DE) amendment to add $110 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which helps state and local law enforcement agencies hire more police officers.

The amendment is being added to the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill. In its current form, the bill has no money for helping local police agencies hire more officers because the Bush administration has sought to eliminate funding for the program.

“COPS has a proven record of reducing crime by helping local police departments put more officers on the street,” said Klobuchar. “As chief prosecutor for Minnesota’s largest county, I saw for myself what a difference it makes when local communities have the proper police resources to protect public safety. COPS has provided valuable support to local law enforcement in Minnesota, but the Bush administration has been trying to kill it for the past six years.”

Klobuchar is joined in her support for additional COPS funding by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. As Chair of the USCM’s Mayors and Police Chiefs Task Force, Mayor Rybak has worked with mayors across the country to create a national agenda against youth violence.

“Like most large cities in America today, Minneapolis continues to face violent crime that is too high,” Rybak said. “The most troubling part of this problem is that the crime we are fighting too often involves violent, heavily armed young people who are being recruited into smaller, more violent gangs. Added to this is a breakdown of family, the proliferation of illegal guns, a culture of violence and retaliation among hopeless youth, and state and federal budget cuts that have lacerated crime enforcement and prevention programs. Left in the wings are too may kids raising themselves and too many kids having kids of their own. Effectively fighting crime requires a stronger partnership between local and federal government, a partnership that requires funding to work.”

Klobuchar is already a co-sponsor of the COPS Improvements Act of 2007 and a bill to authorize the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program at fiscal year 2006 levels through 2012. The program allows states and local governments to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime.

Since it was created in 1994, the COPS program has funded 118,000 officers in more than 12,000 communities nationwide. Researchers credit it as a significant factor in the national decline in violent crime that began in the 1990s.