LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS INCREASE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If it seems like there are more police around, you are
right. For uniformed, street patrol officers alone the nation added more
than 68,000 between 1992 and 1996, to reach a total of 423,000 full-time
state and local police, deputy sheriffs and constables.

They represented 64 percent of all full-time officers, up from 59 percent
in 1993, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Sunday. Proponents of
community policing applauded the numbers as evidence that a crime bill to
put more police on the streets and in partnership with neighborhoods is
working.

``Not only has there been a huge increase in the number of men and women
working in law enforcement, but local agencies are committing a larger
percentage of sworn officers to patrol functions and community policing
activities,'' said Joseph E. Brann, director of the Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services. The COPS program, since it began in 1994, has
funded more than 75,000 additional officers and deputies. Rep. Charles E.
Schumer, D-N.Y., sponsor of the crime bill which produced the COPS program,
linked increases in police officers on the streets with decreases in
recorded violent crimes.

In November, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that violent crimes
against Americans had fallen 10 percent in 1996 from the previous year,
hitting the lowest level since the survey began 23 years earlier.

``There has been a lot of debate about why crime has dropped so far, so
fast, and now the answer is clear -- there are more police then ever on the
street catching criminals,'' said Schumer. ``More cops on the beat means
that all Americans can feel safer where the live, work, play and go to
school.'' The report found that the total number of full-time state and
local officers with arrest powers increased by 59,000 from 1992 to total
663,535 in 1996. Of the full-time sworn officers, 15 percent were assigned
to investigative duties. ------ The report is available on the web site of
the Bureau of Justice Statistics -- www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski