Whatever Happened to Clinton's One Hundred Thousand Cops?

What Ever Happened to Clinton's One Hundred Thousand Cops

A Human Resources Nightmare

by

William Peer

PADM 6604

Human Resources Management

Professor Songa Thomas-Montford

The Beginning of Clinton's Program (COPS)

Under President Clinton's original plan which was part of a crime bill enacted in 1994, the federal government paid 75% of the cost of a new officer's salary for three years, with a salary and benefit cap of $75,000 per officer. According to the COPS Office, it has awarded more than $11.4 billion to over 13,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States since it started awarding grants in 1994. The COPS Office also reported that it has funded more than 117,000 community policing officers throughout the United States as of the end of FY2004. (http://www.usatoday.com).

Although certain congressmen have wanted to eliminate the program it is still being funded through 2014. Whether one agrees with the concept or not, the idea was certainly a positive approach in getting more officers on the street. Recently, a report by the Department of Justice's COPS Office estimated that 12,000 law enforcement officers lost their jobs last year. Another 30,000 positions were left unfilled. (http://www.cops.usdoj.gov). Forty-two thousand law enforcement jobs equates to about four full Army Divisions - lost in the ongoing war on crime. The report concluded that 2011 could have been the first time in 25 years that our nation has experienced a decline in law enforcement positions.

But why the sudden shift in direction? Well, one word comes to everyone's mind when we talk about jobs and economics and that word is the recession of 2008.

The Recession of 2008 Begins

The National Bureau of Economic Research, the arbiter of U.S. business cycles, determined that the recession started in December 2007 (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news).

Economic history reveals that before this last recession, since the Great Depression,...