Klobuchar Joins Law Enforcement and Community Leaders to Announce Legislation to Put More Cops on Street
Press Release
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar joined Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau, Saint Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson, and other law enforcement leaders to announce legislation that would put more cops on the street. The COPS Improvement Act of 2014 would reauthorize funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program which awards grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. The COPS Program has put over 100,000 cops on the beat since 1994.
"As a former prosecutor, I know how important it is to have cops on the beat to keep communities safe," Klobuchar said. "The COPS program provides critical resources to local police departments to ensure they can hire and train law enforcement officers, and this bill will help make sure this program has the support it deserves."
With one-in-three robberies involving cell phone thefts, Klobuchar also discussed this week's announcement that members of the wireless industry have committed to installing kill switch technology on smart phones. The voluntary agreement announced by CTIA-The Wireless Association commits signatories -- which include Apple, Asurian, AT&T, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon -- to include a preloaded or downloadable baseline antitheft tool on all new models of smartphones manufactured after July 2015. This comes after a major push from Klobuchar to help crack down on smartphone thefts and protect consumers' personal information. Klobuchar recently introduced federal legislation requiring carriers to provide kill switch technology for all smartphones.
"The growing problem of cell phone theft is putting lives at risk and costing consumers billions of dollars every year," Klobuchar said. "This new commitment by the wireless industry is an important step forward in our fight against this crime, and now we need to ensure that manufacturers and providers not only make good on their word but continue to take steps to make sure that all consumers have access to the most advanced technologies to protect themselves, their smartphones and their personal information."
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