GORE SEES 100,000 INVISIBLE COPS

"...In Nassau County, N.Y. ... $26 million in federal funding was approved ... the number of county-funded police officers actually fell by 218..."

      When the 1994 Clinton Crime Bill was debated in Congress and the media, one of the more widely spread claims used to ensure its passage was that it would add 100,000 more police officers to our nation's streets through the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program. Of course, the legislation also contained the infamous ban on "assault weapons," but adding more cops to the front lines to combat violent crime was the bill's alleged shining jewel, and without the claims of putting cops on the street, the bill might not have passed.

      An April 13 USA Today editorial, however, cites an audit by the Justice Department that supports the claims made by many of the bill's original opponents, including NRA, that the 100,000 police officers were nothing more than a pipe dream. The audit showed more than 100 communities that received federal grants for new officers used the funding for other purposes. In Nassau County, N.Y., for example, $26 million in federal funding was approved to add 383 police officers. However, from May 1995 to May 1998, the number of county-funded police officers actually fell by 218.

      In Atlanta, Ga., where the city's mayor has attempted to attack firearm manufacturers through civil action, the audit showed that federal funds were used to replace its own police funds, rather than add new officers as intended.

      Vice President Al Gore recently attempted to further the myth of the 100,000 police officers by claiming that COPS had already injected 92,000 new officers into the fight against crime. As the editorial states, though, "the numbers don't add up." The "success" of COPS is just another in the long list of lies propagated by the Clinton-Gore Administration.

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