New York City expects to add 3,640 police officers under the federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program over the next four years, reports The Chief. “This is the Federal Government getting off the sidelines and getting back in the game to provide funds for police localities,” said U..S. Representative Anothony Weiner (D.-N.Y). If COPS is fully funded in the years ahead, it could receive more than $4 billion per year from 2006 to 2009 to pay for new cops.
New York’s police department is one of the few in the U.S. with fewer police officers today than on Sept. 11, 2001 “despite the obvious increase in workload caused by anti-terrorism activities,” noted Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Weiner noted that under the new grant, police agencies will be able to use the money to fund “t-cops” or “terrorism cops,” who specialize in thwarting terrorists. Local law-enforcement departments can also use the funds to pay for additional personnel and for new equipment such as radios and computers. Since 1994,New York City used the COPS program to employ an additional 7,406 officers at a cost of $603 million.
Link: http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2006/0113/News/022.html