Klobuchar introduces bill to restore funding for COPS program
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Law enforcement officials from around the state are calling for the federal government to restore funding to a program that put more police officers on the street.
Created more than a decade ago, the COPS program has funded 118,000 officers across the country in thousands of communities.
The program has been cut in recent years by the Bush administration.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is sponsoring a bill that would boost funding for the COPS program by $551 million.
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The increase would amend the 2009 budget bill currently being considered in the Senate.
Klobuchar said paying to put more police officers on the streets is money well spent.
"Each dollar spent on the COPS program generated somewhere between $4 and $8.50 in benefits to society so that is better than you could get on the stock market right now," Klobuchar said.
Researchers credit the COPS program as a significant factor in the national decline in violent crime in recent years.
