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WILKES-BARRE — U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty Thursday proposed doubling federal funding for the COPS —Community Oriented Policing Services — hiring program that helps local law enforcement agencies hire and train police officers and supports innovative community oriented policing strategies.
During a teleconference, McGinty, the Democrat challenging Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey, said the COPS program provides grants to local law enforcement agencies to advance community policing strategies, work more closely with the communities they serve and has been responsible for the hiring of 3,700 police officers and sheriffs in Pennsylvania, and 127,000 nationwide.
McGinty also took time to criticize her opponent, saying Toomey voted against increasing funding for the COPS program this year, and backed a budget that threatened large cuts to the program.
Steve Kelly of Toomey’s campaign, said the senator has been a strong leader for first responders and has the support of several key law enforcement organizations.
“That’s why so many law enforcement organizations are supporting him over Katie McGinty,” Kelly said. “McGinty’s latest political stunt is laughable, considering her extreme anti-law enforcement positions, like refusing to restore police access to lifesaving gear or defending Philadelphia’s sanctuary city status that will now cost local law enforcement millions in federal grant money.”
McGinty, the daughter of a police officer who walked the beat in Philadelphia for more than 20 years, said she knows how deeply police officers care for the communities they serve.
“That’s why we need to ensure that our law enforcement officers have the resources they need to not only respond to emergencies, but prevent them and build stronger ties with the communities they serve,” McGinty said. “I strongly believe that our communities are safer when our police officers and the families in the neighborhoods they protect every day know and trust each other. That’s why I’m proposing that we double funding for the COPS hiring program to help police officers and communities build relationships and solve problems.”
McGinty said it’s “not enough to just say you support law enforcement.” The evidence, she said, lies in votes made by the elected official.
“It is unacceptable that Pat Toomey would work to undercut a program that enables local law enforcement and the communities they serve to better to work alongside one another to enhance public safety,” McGinty added.
According to information provided by McGinty’s campaign, doubling this year’s funding total of $187 million to the COPS hiring program would bring the total funding for fiscal year 2017 to $374 million. Over the last three years, funding for the COPS hiring program has been: FY 2016: $187 million; FY 2015: $134.6 million; FY 2014: $151 million.
COPS Program
• The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources.
• The COPS Office awards grants to hire community policing professionals, develop and test innovative policing strategies and provide training and technical assistance to community members, local government leaders and all levels of law enforcement. Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to help advance community policing.
