BUSH SEEKS TO CUT COPS PROGRAM

Police: Nooksack Police Chief Larry Mount Cites Benefits From Program.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Law enforcement agencies in the Northwest and nationwide
are complaining about a Bush administration proposal to drastically cut a
federal program that has helped cities and counties hire more than 100,000
police officers for the past eight years.

In his 2004 budget request, Bush proposed reducing spending on the
Community Oriented Policing Services program to $164 million, down from
$1.4 billion this year.

Launched in 1995, the program gives police agencies money to purchase
equipment, like computer terminals in squad cars, help them get extra
training and locate and dismantle methamphetamine labs. It also pays 75
percent of new hires' salaries and benefits for three years, giving local
governments time to find the money to keep them on permanently.

Bush's budget proposal calls for reducing grants that help local police
purchase crime-fighting equipment from $282 million this year to $50
million next year. Grants to help police to fight methamphetamine labs
would be cut from $70 million to $20 million.

Agencies that have already gotten their three-year grants would not be
affected by the proposed cut, but agencies where officials planned to apply
for grants in 2004 would find themselves competing for a smaller pool of
money for crime-fighting equipment and closing meth labs. Money to cover
the cost of hiring officers would be eliminated.

Law enforcement agencies in Oregon and Washington state say the program,
despite requirements for matching grants, was a good way to add officers
and equipment.

Thanks to casino profits and careful planning among Nooksack tribal
leaders, Nooksack Police Chief Larry Mount expects to nearly double the
size of his three-officer force using the COPS program. In 2002, Mount's
department got a $95,711 grant for equipment and $150,000 three-year grant
for two officers.

Without the grant money, Mount said the tribe and the department would be
upgrading the agency in a piecemeal fashion.

"For us, it's probably the only way we could get started right," he said.

Mount said many Indian tribes and small communities "would not have had the
personnel they have now if they did not have the COPS program."