Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk is in Washington, D.C., this week to join prosecutors nationwide in urging Congress to restore money for "vital" local law enforcement programs.
Congress cut 67 percent of the money for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant out of the omnibus appropriations bill for the 2008 fiscal year. Congress is cutting money for the nation's entire criminal justice system from $520 million in fiscal year 2007 to $170 million in fiscal year 2008.
In an e-mail, Polk said the cuts were a drastic, unexpected, behind-the-scenes measure. Both the Senate and the House approved separate versions that provided $600 million for fiscal year 2008, but a conference committee made the cuts.
The harm to Arizona will be dramatic, according to Polk. She said that Arizona could expect to receive $1.7 million for fiscal year 2008, down from $5.5 million in fiscal year 2007, unless the state convinces Congress to restore the money.
Polk is meeting with Arizona's congressional delegation and giving them raw numbers, statistics and details about the programs that the reduced spending provisions will eliminate. She hopes individual congressional districts will support an emergency supplemental bill to reinstate the money.
Arizona is a major drug trafficking corridor for smugglers to bring narcotics into the country, Polk said. The loss of the Byrne money means that Congress will eliminate many of the rural task forces, leaving tens of thousands of square miles of the state without coordinated narcotics intervention efforts.
In 2007, 194 officers died nationwide. Five officers in Arizona died this past year, and already in 2008 a smuggler killed a Yuma border patrol agent and a fleeing suspect fired at a Prescott police officer.
Polk said cutting criminal justice money when crime rates and officer fatalities are on the rise is not in the best interest of Arizona's citizens.
Law enforcement agencies, courts and prosecutors' offices throughout Arizona rely on the money to target local needs. In Yavapai County, the Justice Assistance Grant pays for Partners against Narcotics Trafficking and the drug prosecutor in the Yavapai County Attorney's office.
"The loss of this money will be devastating to our efforts to fight drug trafficking and the violent crime wave associated with it," stated Polk. "Communities throughout our state will see the effects of these cuts to our nation's most effective crime-fighting programs."
Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008
Article comment by:
raybeez
It is a big drop in the grant money, but the grants handed out should be looked into as cost effective...
Point in fact - Prescott Valley recently received a grant for a new police dog. The grant?? $14,800.
Sorry to tell you this, but trained police dogs do NOT cost that much. In fact, TWO trained police dogs do not cost that much where I shop.
Wasted grant money that could have been shared with other departments.
This bloated price of a police dog leads me to believe that somebody's got their hand in the grant cookie jar...
Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008
Article comment by:
W. Lee Radu
I agree with Patrick, the Bennett case was a clear and obviously indefensible abuse of Political power, setting aside Justice, demonstrating there are several kinds of Justice available to those with Money and Political Clout versus the Justice meaded out to John Q. Public.
Posted: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Article comment by:
W. Lee Radu
After Clinton put 100,000 additional officers on the streets and crime was dramatically reduced by that action, every budget cutting, bean counting, desparate politician decided cutting Law Enforcement funding was a good idea. Some historical revisionists are beginning to invoke Ronald Reagan's name as a genius on good economy. Like it's been said; "you can't fix stupid". Firefighters and Police Officers are essential to any community's continued fundemental well being.
Posted: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Article comment by:
Patrick
I lost all respect for Sheila Polk after the Bennett case. She should be replaced.
