Police departments feel impact of federal budget cuts
The last-minute 2011 federal budget cut $38 billion in non-entitlement domestic spending, exempting all national security agencies from cuts. But the Chicago Tribune’s Robert Channick and Joseph Ruzich report that Justice Dept. money to local law enforcement was not exempt — overall the Dept. lost about $1 billion from its 2010 budget, including $296 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, program. The Tribune looks at how hard these cuts hit suburban Chicago police forces. For example, the COPS program pays the salaries of three police officers and provides the money for bulletproof vests for the Maywood police department.