CLINTON TO PROPOSE SPENDING $6 BILLION TO BATTLE CRIME

President Clinton planned to propose a five-year, $6 billion
anti-crime package today that would up the ante on his nearly
fulfilled pledge to put 100,000 new cops on the beat nationwide.

Bolstered by preliminary data suggesting the number of violent crimes
in 1998 could be a 25-year low, Clinton was scheduled to venture
across the Potomac River to Alexandria, Va., to unveil a new
community-policing initiative.

As of October, 88,500 new police officers had been hired under a 1994
anti-crime measure authorizing federal aid to local law enforcement
agencies for putting more cops on the street. The Target of 100,000
new officers under the so-called COPS program is expected to be
reached in May.

Clinton's new budget would ask Congress for $1.3 billion in fiscal
2000 - and a total of $6.4 billion over the next five years - to
extend the COPS programs, said Jose Cerda, a crime specialist on the
president's Domestic Policy Council.