Gramm ‘Repair’ on Police Funds : Senator works for huge cuts in law that is putting more cops on the street

Like any serious presidential contender, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) wants to be considered tough on crime. But voters aren’t likely to see him that way when they learn he is trying to tamper with the law that is putting more police officers on the streets. The use of the Senate appropriations process by Gramm and some other conservatives to revise last year’s federal crime legislation is misguided, to put it mildly.

The 1994 measure, passed by the Congress with strong backing from the Clinton Administration, provides localities $8.8 billion over five years for 100,000 new police officers. In the crime law’s first full year, the government has delivered funding for a quarter of those positions--including 862 in the Los Angeles Police Department and 49 in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

Now some Republicans want to change the funding rules by employing block grants instead of direct allocations. The result could be a $200-million cut in police funding in the next fiscal year alone.

Proponents of the change argue that law enforcement would benefit because jurisdictions would have greater flexibility in choosing the policing strategies best suited to their needs. That view, however, is not widely held in the law enforcement community. Having been stung in the past when lump-sum block grants were misused, U.S. police chiefs are wary of political shell games on the state and local levels that siphon off scarce financial resources.

Perhaps Gramm, an appropriations subcommittee chairman, thinks that by pushing block grants he can “out-tough” presidential rival Bob Dole on crime while denying President Clinton one of his biggest legislative wins. But this isn’t the way to do it.

Clinton made his promise of 100,000 police officers a keystone of his domestic policy. With a Senate vote due on the funding change at any time, Democrats and Republican moderates should stand with the President. This popular law does great good for all the nation--especially Los Angeles and other urban centers--by being bad news for criminals.