A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

THE WHITE HOUSE  Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________________  For Immediate Release                                   October 15, 1998 

Putting Security First for Schools with Serious Crime

To help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire an estimated 2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools --and to train school safety officers, educators and other members of the community to help recognize the early warning signs of violence.

Up to 2,000 Community Police Officers for Schools

While students are less likely to be a crime victim at school than in previous years, serious crime continues to plague many larger and urban schools --and more students now feel unsafe at or on their way to school.

• Building on the President's successful Community Policing Initiative. To help address the needs of these schools, the President will announce the availability of $60 million from his COPS Program to hire new community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools with serious crime problems. These new funds will help communities to expand their community policing efforts to include school crime problems as part of their overall community policing strategies. Generally, local police departments will receive up to $125,000 per officer for three years --with no local match required.

• New training resources. Additionally, this new initiative will dedicate $5 million --through the COPS Office's Regional Community Policing Institutes --to train new police officers, and to train educators and other community members to help recognize the early warning signs of school violence.

A record of building partnerships between law enforcement and schools

• Forging School-Based Partnerships Between Schools and Law Enforcement. In September 1998, the President announced $16.4 million in grants to 155 law enforcement agencies to fund new School-Based Partnerships grants through the Department of Justice. These grants will be used by policing agencies to work with schools and community-based organizations to address crime in and around schools. This initiative emphasizes using community policing principles and problem-solving methods to address the causes of school-related crime. The grants will help strengthen partnerships between local law enforcement and schools, and help them to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline problems.

• Meeting the President's Pledge of 100,000 More Police. Last week, the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) announced $27.4 million in grants for 151 policing agencies across the country to hire 428 officers --bringing the total number of officers funded under the President's COPS Initiative to over 88,500 --keeping the COPS Initiative ahead of schedule and under budget.

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