President Pushes For More Police Officers In Schools
By Eileen O'Connor
WASHINGTON (June 16) -- President Bill Clinton will push for more police officers in schools while signing legislation authorizing $75 million worth of grants over three years to local law enforcement to purchase bullet proof vests and releasing $27 million to hire nearly 400 new officers.
The FBI estimates 25 percent of local law enforcement do not have such protection. The $27 million in grants will be given to 73 local and state law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring of 369 full-time and 29 part-time officers through the Community Oriented Policing Services program (COPS).
Currently 76,000 officers have been funded through the program. The president pledged to put 100,000 more officers on the streets.
Clinton will ask the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to report back with a plan to use COPS funding to bring more officers into interested schools.
The president will be joined by police officer Ron Brown, who apprehended a juvenile accused of shooting two faculty members in a high school in Richmond, Va. on Monday. Brown was stationed in the school as a result of the community policing program in Richmond.
In addition the president will again call on Congress to pass legislation providing college scholarships to the dependents of slain state and local law enforcement officers.
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