Today, U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) and Dave Reichert (R-WA), co-chairs of the House Law Enforcement Caucus, led a bipartisan letter signed by 133 colleagues calling on President Donald Trump to provide robust support for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) in the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget. Additionally, the letter urges the Trump Administration to ensure the COPS Office remains an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) so that it may continue to support community policing efforts that build trust and mutual respect between law enforcement officers and communities.

“For over two decades, the COPS Office and its corresponding programs have provided invaluable resources and technical assistance to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies to advance community policing efforts that have reduced crime and made towns and cities across America safer,” the members wrote in the letter. “These additional resources and assistance have helped implement initiatives to develop and test innovative policing strategies and provide training to community members, local government leaders, and all levels of law enforcement.”

The letter was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, National Sheriffs Association, Major County Sheriffs' Association, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Click here to view the full letter.

Last year, Reps. Pascrell and Reichert sent a letter to President Trump outlining the importance of the COPS Office. The letter highlighted the critical role the COPS Office serves to support the law enforcement community and improving community policing efforts across the country to keep neighborhoods safe. The letter also raised concerns about any legislative or budget proposals that would jeopardize the work of the COPS Office.

COPS Office Background

Since its inception, the COPS Office has placed more than 130,000 sworn law enforcement officers in communities across the country by providing grants for the hiring of officers through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program. These grants provide federal resources to communities with public safety needs that may lack the funds to hire law enforcement officers. Additionally, the COPS Office is responsible for implementing legislation authored and co-sponsored by Reps. Pascrell and Reichert. Specifically, the COPS Office oversees implementation the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act (Public Law: 114-12), which establishes a nationwide Blue Alert communications system to help disseminate information on serious injury or death of a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, an officer who is missing in connection with the officer's official duties, or an imminent and credible threat that an individual intends to cause the serious injury or death of a law enforcement officer. Finally, the COPS Office is responsible for overseeing implementation of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (Public Law: 115-113), which allows the COPS Office to make grants available to initiate peer mentoring pilot programs and develop training to meet law enforcement mental health needs.

Text of the bipartisan letter follows:

February 5, 2017

President Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

In advance of your Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Budget, we write in strong support of robust funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the programs the office administers on behalf of our nation’s law enforcement officers. Additionally, it is imperative the COPS Office remains an independent agency within the DOJ so that it may continue to support community policing efforts that build trust and mutual respect between law enforcement officers and communities.

For over two decades, the COPS Office and its corresponding programs have provided invaluable resources and technical assistance to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies to advance community policing efforts that have reduced crime and made towns and cities across America safer. These additional resources and assistance have helped implement initiatives to develop and test innovative policing strategies and provide training to community members, local government leaders, and all levels of law enforcement.

One of the most critical programs the COPS Office oversees is the Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring (COPS Hiring) Program which provides struggling communities with necessary funding to address their personnel needs to protect their citizens. Since its inception, the COPS Hiring program has placed more than 130,000 officers in communities across the United States to advance policing and crime prevention efforts. Ensuring communities have the needed bodies on the street patrolling neighborhoods bolsters their ability to effectively engage with their communities and proactively respond to individual community needs, instead of running from one crime to the next.

The COPS Office is also responsible for implementing legislation to improve the safety of law enforcement officers across our nation. For instance, the COPS Office is responsible for overseeing implementation of the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act (Public Law: 114-12). This law establishes a nationwide Blue Alert communications system to help disseminate information on serious injury or death of a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, an officer who is missing in connection with the officer's official duties, or an imminent and credible threat that an individual intends to cause the serious injury or death of a law enforcement officer.

Additionally, the COPS Office is responsible for overseeing implementation of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (Public Law: 115-113), which was recently passed into law. This law will help law enforcement agencies create and improve mental health services for law enforcement officers by allowing the COPS Office to make grants available to initiate peer mentoring pilot programs, develop training for mental health providers specific to law enforcement mental health needs, and support law enforcement officers by studying the effectiveness of crisis hotlines and annual mental health checks.

These are just some examples of the responsibilities Congress has tasked the COPS Office with carrying out as a vital component of our nation’s homeland security. As the federal government continues to ask local cops to do more, we have a responsibility to ensure they have the necessary tools and resources. That is why we were encouraged by your Administration’s FY18 budget request for the COPS Office that included an increase in funding. In your FY19 budget request we hope to again see a strong commitment to the COPS Office because it remains one of the best ways to ensure law enforcement has the resources it needs.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter. We look forward to working with your Administration to ensure the COPS Office remains an independent agency within DOJ with robust funding to support community policing efforts across the country.

Sincerely,

Signatories:

Bill Pascrell, Jr.

Dave Reichert

Alma Adams

Nanette Diaz Barragán

Karen Bass

Donald S. Beyer, Jr.

Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.

Earl Blumenauer

Lisa Blunt Rochester

Madeleine Z. Bordallo

Brendan Boyle

Julia Brownley

Cheri Bustos

Michael Capuano

Salud O. Carbajal

André Carson

Judy Chu

David N. Cicilline

Steve Cohen

Barbara Comstock

J. Luis Correa

Jim Costa

Joe Courtney

Elijah E. Cummings

Peter DeFazio

Diana DeGette

John K. Delaney

Rosa L. DeLauro

Val Butler Demings

Mark DeSaulnier

Theodore Deutch

Debbie Dingell

Mike Doyle

Keith Ellison

Anna G. Eshoo

Adriano Espaillat

Lois Frankel

Marcia l. Fudge

John Garamendi

Jimmy Gomez

Vicente Gonzalez

Josh Gottheimer

Gene Green

Raúl M. Grijalva

Colleen Hanabusa

Alcee L. Hastings

Denny Heck

Jaime Herrera Beutler

Brian Higgins

Sheila Jackson Lee

Pramila Jayapal

Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr.

Marcy Kaptur

William R. Keating

Robin Kelly

Joseph P. Kennedy III

Ro Khanna

Dan Kildee

Derek Kilmer

Ron Kind

Peter T. King

Ann McLane Kuster

Leonard Lance

James Langevin

Rick Larsen

John B. Larson

Brenda L. Lawrence

Al Lawson

Barbara Lee

Sander Levin

Daniel W. Lipinski

Frank A. Lobiondo

Dave Loebsack

Zoe Lofgren

Alan Lowenthal

Ben Ray Lujan

Michelle Lujan Grisham

Stephen Lynch

Tom MacArthur

Carolyn Maloney

Sean Patrick Maloney

Doris Matsui

Betty Mccollum

A. Donald McEachin

James P. McGovern

David McKinley

Jerry McNerney

Seth Moulton

Stephanie Murphy

Jerrold Nadler

Grace F. Napolitano

Richard Neal

Rick Nolan

Donald Norcross

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Tom O’Halleran

Frank Pallone, Jr.

Jimmy Panetta

Donald Payne, Jr.

Scott H. Peters

Collin Peterson

Mark Pocan

David Price

Mike Quigley

Jamie Raskin

Kathleen M. Rice

Jacky Rosen

Lucille Roybal-Allard

Raul Ruiz

Tim Ryan

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan

Linda Sánchez

Jan Schakowsky

David Scott

Carol Shea-Porter

Brad Sherman

Kyrsten Sinema

Albio Sires

Louise Slaughter

Lloyd Smucker

Darren Soto

Jackie Speier

Eric Swalwell

Mark Takano

Mike Thompson

Dina Titus

Norma J. Torres

Marc Veasey

Nydia M. Velázquez

Tim Walz

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Peter Welch

Frederica Wilson

John Yarmuth

Don Young