The Political Interest Good Cops for Less

By Michael Kramer

DID YOU NOTICE THE COPS STANDING BEHIND BILL CLINTON AS THE PRESIdent unveiled his crime-fighting package last week? Almost all were from the neighborhood, from Washington and its surrounding suburbs. That's no big deal, of course; any blue will do for a law-and-order photo-op. But the absence of officers from all over the U.S. (the norm for decades whenever uniforms have gathered to support a President's latest war on crime) tells a tale. Clinton's proposals, a grab bag of familiar notions, were hastily introduced. That doesn't mean they're bad or ill conceived -- the Administration worked on them for months -- but the speed of their introduction is all about politics, a desire to trump the anticrime initiatives that Senate Republican leader Bob Dole announced on Aug. 4.

Unfortunately, Clinton has shortchanged one of the few truly new (and good) ideas in years -- the Police Corps proposal authored by Adam Walinsky, a New York lawyer who served as Robert Kennedy's top aide. Like ROTC, the Police Corps would offer a swap. Each year, competitively selected high school seniors would win federal financing for their college education; in exchange, they would serve four years as local police officers after graduation. The corps promises four benefits:

1) Compared with regular cops, they would be a bargain. It costs about $55,000 a year to pay and equip the average officer. Primarily because of reduced pension benefits, corps members would cost about a third less. 2) Many urban police forces have trouble attracting qualified minority recruits. A Justice Department survey has concluded that many inner-city youths would gravitate to the corps' service-for-college trade. 3) The infusion of college graduates would improve the overall educational level of local police forces. 4) Perhaps most important, says Walinsky, "a sizable number of civilians, the kinds of kids who are going to end up as lawyers or business leaders, will learn about police work firsthand and support it throughout their lives. And they, at least, will have ingrained the habits of self-defense and courage in a country dying from fear."

Candidate Clinton portrayed himself as the Police Corps's biggest fan and regularly crowed that he was the first Governor to create a Walinsky-style program -- but Arkansas' college-for-service deal won't start until 1997. Now President Clinton has asked for $100 million over four years for a total of about 3,000 corps members. "Given the crime wave," says Walinsky, "referring to this as a step in the right direction, as Clinton does, is like Franklin Roosevelt calling for 100 new tanks in 1941." Dole, who wants $250 million for the same purpose, identifies the resistance: The police chiefs "want regular cops, the kind they're used to. They also want to spend on new, high-tech stuff," the wrong emphasis, says Dole, because "what we need are more cops on the beat," to deter crime by their presence and to catch those who aren't deterred.

Dole is right, concedes a White House aide, "but we didn't want to take on the chiefs. Maybe Congress will push us. In fact, we wouldn't mind the proposal of those other Senators," a bipartisan group urging a full-blown Police Corps that would cost about $1.2 billion annually.

That's no small change, but it would be money well spent. "We're losing the streets," says Boston police commissioner Bill Bratton. That isn't news to those who walk them, and it's the best reason to establish the Police Corps at levels that can make a difference.