Community policing has been proven to reduce violence, and has been a domestic priority for President Biden. On Thursday, the government announced more than $334 million in grants for community policing, bringing total investment in community-led safety initiatives to $5.6 billion by 2023.
The funding includes money for hiring, the COPS School Violence Prevention Program, crisis intervention teams, de-escalation training and more through the COPS Community Policing Development program.
Details:
-Nearly $217 million to 394 agencies through the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) to hire 1,730 entry-level law enforcement officers in an effort to create and retain jobs and increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
-More than $73.6 million to 206 school districts, state and local governments, and other public agencies through the COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) to improve safety in schools and on school grounds.
-Approximately $43.6 million to support crisis intervention teams, de-escalation training, accreditation efforts and innovative community policing strategies through the COPS Community Policing Development (CPD) program.
Crime rates have dropped
This approach is already working. Murder and manslaughter in 2021-2022 fell 6.4% and rape fell 8% nationwide, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said during a call with reporters in which PoliticusUSA participated . The grants will also “help school districts across the country and create a safer environment for our children” with “more than $73 million in school violence prevention grants to more than 200 school districts and state and local governments to improve safety in schools,” Monaco said.
It is important to note that due to the violence we have witnessed against children by police in schools, the money cannot be used for officers in schools. However, it can be used for school safety deterrent measures.
History
Community policing has a long history, emerging in the 1960s and 1970s during the civil rights movement, but was eventually replaced by a more militant style of policing in the 1980s. The United Nations says community policing “helps increase public trust in the police and other law enforcement agencies. Community-oriented policing not only strengthens the bond between the police and the community, but also increases public trust and cooperation with the community and the effectiveness and efficiency of the police and other law enforcement agencies to protect lives, property and human rights.
Former President Obama poured money into research into more community-based policing, and now President Biden has made community policing a high priority in his domestic policy.
But civil rights groups have criticized the Safer America Plan as a return to the 1994 crime bill. With that in mind, the funding today is intended to increase police on the streets, but the intention is to do so using “best practices” of community-based policing, which is intended to better protect people’s rights and protect public safety. said senior government officials. Yet there will always be people who abuse their power. Oversight of bad actors is critical, but requires willing leaders.
Biden continues to push for funding for community-based policing and violence reduction. In the “learn something new every day” category, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden pointed out that President Biden is not only “focused on making our community safer, preventing crime, strengthening public safety and building public confidence in the police,” as well as president, but “when he was a senator, the president was the chief architect of the bill establishing the Community Community Oriented Policing Services Office, commonly known as the Police Office. ”
Officer training and support are both critical to reducing officer violence and mental health crises. De-escalation training is something that is taken for granted in the military, but for some reason it is too often not emphasized enough in police training. While policing remains problematic, especially for Black Americans, community policing is a better approach and the federal government supports both public safety and well-trained, community-based police boots on the ground.
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