Justice Dept. Moves to Fund Hiring of Police

Moving quickly to make good on President Clinton’s crime-fighting pledge, Justice Department officials said Friday that they would establish a special office to begin distributing funds for more on-the-beat policing of the nation’s cities.

The department’s initial move, while modest in scope, is designed to show the Administration’s commitment after passage of the first crime bill to make its way through Congress in six years.

Under provisions of the crime legislation, the federal government will pay up to 75% of the cost of hiring new officers, with communities paying the rest.

In a telephone conference call Friday with Clinton, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and other big-city executives thanked the President for his efforts and pledged that they would use the funds to make their cities safer.

Riordan said the money will help him accomplish his goal of hiring 4,000 more police officers over the next five years, perhaps doing so sooner than anticipated.

“Public safety is the No. 1 issue of the people of Los Angeles,” Riordan said. “The crime bill will help make Los Angeles and other cities safer.”

Clinton, referring to funds already appropriated, told the mayors that “in the next two months alone we’re going to give you the resources to hire 2,500 more police officers in cities that were only turned down last year and this year because we didn’t have enough money.”

The crime bill is expected to assure the hiring of 100,000 more officers over the next six years. The White House said the President would sign it after Labor Day when he returns from a vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Congress has yet to appropriate the $30 billion in spending authorized by the crime measure. But to help the government “hit the ground running,” department officials are to begin distributing by October $200 million in previously appropriated funds. That money was approved by Congress last year for local police hiring for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Justice Department officials said they already have more than 2,400 applications pending for new police hires. Besides matching funds for police officers, the crime bill includes $9.8 billion in grants and matching funds for construction of more prison space and reimbursement to states like California for incarceration of illegal immigrants.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, joining Clinton in the conference call, told the mayors that she would “make sure this bill is administered the right way (and) that it’s implemented in a way that can make sure we get resources to you as soon as possible and as effectively as possible.”

White House officials estimated that California as a whole will receive funds to hire 10,560 more police officers and could get as many as 25,470 new prison cells through the prison grant program to lock up criminal offenders.

Nationwide, the inmate population now is about 1.4 million, up 55% from about 900,000 in 1987 and certain to grow larger with new sentencing guidelines. About 40 states are under court orders to ease overcrowding and 30,000 violent criminals convicted in state courts were released last year without spending a day behind bars.

More prisons also will be needed because of the crime bill’s popular “three strikes, you’re out” provision, which requires life sentences for those convicted for a third time in federal court of violent crimes and drug offenses.

No new taxes will be needed to pay for the legislation. The entire $30 billion, which is to be spent over six years, is to come from a special trust fund developed from cutting the federal bureaucracy by 250,000 positions over the next several years.

At the insistence of some Republicans and conservative Democrats, a number of crime-prevention programs were stripped from the bill to guarantee its passage. But a section that remains in the legislation earmarks $20 million the first year for military-style “boot camps” for youthful offenders--instead of prisons--and other programs aimed at helping youths avoid a life of crime.

Los Angeles community leaders rejoiced at the Senate’s action. “We’re ecstatic,” said Danny Hernandez, executive director of the Hollenbeck Youth Center. “I think that money’s going to come down here and keep a lot of kids out of jail.”

Hernandez said that his organization has survived mostly on private donations for several years and that he hopes the federal help will also boost private donations to crime-prevention programs. “With both government and private money you can work miracles,” he said. Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the council’s public safety committee, said that he feels “joy and jubilation, relief and a renewed faith that the system works.”

City Legislative Analyst Avak Keotahian predicted that money from the legislation will not reach Los Angeles until next June. “But at the very least, it’s a source of great hope that at long last we will be able to do something about crime,” Keotahian said.

Los Angeles County officials were cautious in their assessment, saying that they need to know more about requirements accompanying the legislation, such as provisions calling for local matching funds. “We’re happy to see it passed,” said Undersheriff Jerry Harper. “However, we can’t be too exuberant until we see what the match is, what the guidelines are.”

Greensboro, N.C., Police Chief Sylvester Doughtry, who is president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, said in an interview that he expects many police officials to seek federal funds for crime-prevention programs through the schools.

A police official in Chicago added: “I’d rather work with an 8- or 9-year-old now than have to fight with that child at age 19 in an alley.”

Some mayors expressed appreciation to Clinton for the bill’s prohibition of 19 types of assault-style weapons, a provision also strongly advocated by law enforcement officials and championed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Referring to this section, Mayor Emanuel Cleaver II of Kansas City thanked Clinton “for the fact that you, pardon the pun, stuck to your guns” on the assault weapons ban.

Noting the President’s intensive lobbying for passage of the bill, Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell told Clinton: “I think we got through two harrowing votes. I can’t imagine what you were feeling but I was in agony as they were taking the roll call.”

Replied the President: “Just another day in paradise here.”

Times staff writers John M. Broder in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Los Angeles contributed to this story.