U.S. GIVES NYC $120M TO FIGHT CRIME

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Clinton, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with
Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Thursday, rewarded New York for its
dramatic drop in crimes by giving the city $120 million to bolster police
patrols.

``Hundreds of more police officers for New York City means a lower crime
rate for a city that's proved that police can do the job,'' Clinton said.

In an announcement staged at JFK International Airport with New York Police
Commissioner Howard Safir, Clinton said the Justice Department was giving
New York the $120 million grant to pay for 1,600 additional police
officers. Another 620 law enforcement agencies around the country will
share $118 million to fund a total of 1,700 additional police officers in
their forces.

Giuliani, who has claimed credit for New York's 44 percent drop in crime
over the past four years, said his administration would target the new
federal money toward anti-drug programs. Illegal drug use and trafficking
is ``probably the thing that's holding us back the most right now,'' the
mayor said.

To the Democratic president, Giuliani said: ``It's a source of great
strength for the police officers in this city to know they can turn to you
and to the Justice Department in partnership.''

Despite their different partisan labels, Giuliani and Clinton have
developed a close working relationship that weathered the president's
campaigning for Giuliani's Democratic opponent in last November's election.

The grants are part of Clinton's ``community policing'' initiative which
passed in the 1994 crime bill and ultimately aims to put 100,000 new police
officers on America's streets. Giuliani had urged Congress to pass that
legislation, and since it became law, New York City has received more than
$400 million from the federal program, the mayor said.