Eric Holder

Holder: GOP Cuts To COPS Program 'Place This Nation At Risk'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2011, 12:26PM

House Republican's plan to kill the Justice Department's Community Orienting Policing Services (COPS) program is "unacceptable" and would "place this nation at risk," Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

"Though we are enjoying historically low crime rates, we have 30,000 vacant law enforcement positions in this county, we have lost 12,000 officers over the course of the last year, and we put at risk the possibility that these historically low rates will not remain there forever," Holder said in response to a question from Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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