Letter to Eric Holder, Attorney General - COPS Hiring Program

Letter

Dear Attorney General Holder,

Thank you for your ongoing support to local law enforcement to ensure our cities and towns are able to provide community oriented policing. The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is vital to local communities facing violent crime. This is a mission central to the work we do both in Congress and throughout the federal government.

In my home state of New York, violent crime in the City of Newburgh has remained a significant problem for years, especially since they have lost nearly 40% of their police force since 2000. According to 2013 data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newburgh residents have a 1 in 16 chance of being a victim of a violent crime or property crime in a given year, a rate that is significantly higher than the majority of U.S. cities, both large and small. Over 100 gang members have been caught in the area in recent years. Altogether in 2012 -- the last year where comprehensive statistics could be found -- there were 5 murders, 19 rapes, 307 instances of aggravated assault, 62 stolen vehicles and 36 separate shooting incidents that resulted in 43 people being shot.

Funding from the CHP would greatly aid Newburgh, which has a dwindling police force and a high crime rate. However, the CHP program has an arbitrary limit on the amount of funding a city can apply for based on the size of the police force and not on the amount of crime. I'm asking you to lift this restriction and take into consideration local crime rates. In addition, I would like to pledge my support to Newburgh's application to the CHP to fund the hiring of four new cops. Every officer added to the streets of Newburgh will make a difference to the amount of crime faced by the community.

In order to ensure that the communities facing rising crime are able to apply for sufficient resources to push back the rising tides, I ask you to consider a variety of circumstances in determining CHP applications. Thank you for your continued support of local law enforcement and I look forward to working with you on this important issue.‎

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

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