After September 11, The United States cannot afford to wastevaluable resources on misplaced priorities and ineffectiveprograms. Common sense dictates that resources should be shiftedaway from the ineffective programs of the DOJ to programs that willbetter protect America's security.
Recent reports of elevated crime rates have led commentators andpublic officials to speculate about what factors are to blame.Social scientists need time to collect and adequately analyze therecent crime data to develop explanations for the rise. Socialcritics, however, are not right to claim that the BushAdministration's reduction of subsidies to local law enforcementfor their routine responsibilities, through such programs as theOffice of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), is to blame.A better explanation is that the U.S. may not be relying heavilyenough on criminal penalties, especially incarceration, todiscourage criminal activity.
For the past seven years, the most prominent federalcrime-prevention initiative has been the Community OrientedPolicing Services (COPS) program, which gives grants to state andlocal law enforcement agencies to help them reduce crime byincreasing community policing services.