Obama keeps pledge with money for COPS

During last year’s presidential campaign, the Democratic Party nominee for vice president, Joe Biden, came to the Mahoning Valley and promised that with Barack Obama in the White House, cities like Youngstown would get help from Washington to fight crime.

On Tuesday, the campaign promise was kept — and it isn’t just Youngstown, in the Mahoning Valley, that is the beneficiary of the administration’s largess. Warren, Niles, Girard, Newton Falls and East Liverpool are also sharing in the $27 million-plus that has been earmarked for the state of Ohio.

And before the critics of the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress get on their political high horses and criticize the funding as inadequate, consider this: At the beginning of 2008, then Republican President George W. Bush slashed $1 billion from programs that support law enforcement efforts. Bush proposed consolidating 70 state and local law enforcement assistance programs into four grant programs.

Under consolidation, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) initiative and the Bryne Justice Assistance Grants were to be eliminated.

Fortunately, Obama won the election — and working with Congress reinstated the crime-fighting programs.

Thus, when the lawyer representing police officers in Warren says the $605,331 allocation is “terribly disappointing,” we wonder how he reacted last year when local law enforcement took a big hit from the Bush White House.

If Randall Weltman doesn’t think that Warren’s ability to bring back three police officers from layoff is an important development — considering the alternative — we have to wonder how realistically he’s looking at things.

Of course it would have been great had the city been able to secure enough money from Washington to bring back all 21 officers who were laid off because of Warren’s dire economic condition.

The losers

But it would be foolhardy to think that a small city could grab a significant piece of the $1 billion pie when major cities like New York, Houston, Seattle and Pittsburgh are locked out.

We aren’t willing to look a gift horse in the mouth and, therefore, applaud the Obama administration for not ignoring the Mahoning Valley.

Youngstown will receive $1.8 million from the Federal Recovery Act Grant Program for Law Enforcement; Niles, $468,382; Girard, $229,428; Newton Falls, $195.090; and, East Liverpool, $179,803.

The money is meant to pay the salaries and benefits of a specific number of officers in each department for three years. The cities are expected to retain the grant-funded positions in the fourth year.

“A big part of the Recovery Act is about building communities — making them as strong as they can be, allowing every American family to live a better life than the one they are leading now,” said Vice President Biden in announcing the COPS funding. “And we can’t achieve the goal of stronger communities without supporting those who keep our streets safe.”

It is now up to the police departments to ensure that the officers funded through the program are assigned to street patrols so their presence in high-crime areas will be felt.

The $1 billion for COPS nationally is only a portion of the $4 billion in the Recovery Act (the economic stimulus package) for the Department of Justice to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement efforts, including hiring of new police officers, combatting violence against women, and fighting Internet crimes against children.

Grants have already been awarded to states and local communities through those programs.

The administration and Congress — no Republicans voted for the $787 billion stimulus package in the House and just three in the Senate — are to be commended for recognizing the important role law enforcement plays in the life of a community.