Congress, Clinton continue to wage war on crime bill

Benjamin Grove And Jace Radke

Friday, Oct. 22, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and Congress are clashing over a federal program that has hired 34 new Metro Police officers.

Clinton's 5-year-old plan to put 100,000 more cops on the nation's streets has translated to $2.74 million for Metro for new equipment and officers in the last five years, according to the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

The COPS program has hired 244 officers in Nevada.

Clinton has made the initiative one of his signature issues, beaming proudly when the COPS office funded its 100,000th officer on May 12.

"Today I will send to Congress a new Crime Bill for the 21st Century," Clinton said then. "This bill builds on the successes of the 1994 Crime Bill. We know what works, and we should make certain that those efforts are continued and expanded."

Five months later, Clinton is in a dogfight to maintain the program.

The president wanted $1.3 billion for COPS. Congress this week approved $325 million. The money is wrapped inside a much larger $39 billion spending bill to fund the nation's justice, commerce and state departments. But Clinton has threatened to veto the whole bill over the COPS issue.

"What this means to Las Vegas and other cities and towns across the country is that there will be less funding for the program," said Dan Pfeiffer, spokesman for the COPS office. Pfeiffer said Congress' version of the bill would mean far less technology for police departments and just 3,000 new officers this year, instead of 6,000.

If the proposed cuts pass, the effect on Metro could be minimal as the department may not apply for any of the COPS grant money anyway.

"If the money is there strictly for manpower, we won't apply, but if it is available for technical equipment for metrocomm or other areas in the department, we'd apply," department spokesman Lt. Marc Joseph said. "We are already turning out the maximum number of officers we can at the academy."

Metro gets about 4,000 employment inquiries and ends up hiring about 250 new officers a year.

"We did apply for this federal money before, and I believe we used it to hire about 26 officers," Joseph said. "Last time it came around we didn't apply, and they told us you have money for four officers coming if you want it or not."

The money for those four officers totaled $100,000, which Joseph said is designed to pay their first year on the force, with Metro picking up the pay checks after that.

"It's a very restrictive process with a lot of paperwork," Joseph said of federal grant monies. "Your very limited in what you can use the money for."

In the past Metro has accepted just over $350,000 of COPS grant money for new technology, computers and equipment used to combat methamphetamine labs.

The current configuration of the $39 million bill that the COPS money is a part of also includes nearly $750,000 to combat meth labs in Clark County.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sides with Clinton on the bill saying that fighting for increased COPS funding is important enough to veto the bill.

"This is a piece of legislation that is worth fighting for," Berkley said. "To support legislation that doesn't begin to help my constituents, my Metro police force, would be foolish on my part, a dereliction of duty."

Berkley's Republican colleague, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., voted in favor of the bill because the bill also contains funding for two new federal judges in Nevada.

Sens. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., support the president's veto of the bill.

"Sen. Bryan is very supportive of the COPS program," Bryan spokesman Tom Foulkes said. "It's done great things for Nevada. This funding is inadequate, and we need to get more."