Joe Biden in Brennan Center for Justice essays

On Crime: Police and communities must respect each other

Does the danger the police face prevent the police in your neighborhood from seeing the people they serve? I served in these communities as a public defender, and for 36 years as Delaware's senator. I know, and I see, the goodness and decency in communities across the country. And I have also worked with thousands of honorable and decent police officers.

It is the responsibility of every community to recognize the humanity of the men and women who volunteer to put themselves in harm's way, to answer the urgent call in the night, to do the best that they can. And it is the responsibility of every officer who takes an oath to protect and serve to respect the dignity of every person that officer encounters, young or old, male or female, black, white, Hispanic, or Asian. We need to agree as a nation on two basic statements of truth. Number one, cops have a right to make it home to their families tonight. And number two, all minorities have a right to be treated with dignity and respect.

Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 4-5 Apr 28, 2015

On Crime: Community policing is expensive, but it works

I helped institutionalize community policing, in the 1994 Biden Crime Bill. When it started, it worked. But it's really expensive. It takes a lot of cops. In the beginning we had adequate resources. The 1994 Biden Crime Bill at the time was a pretty expensive operation. It put another 100,000 cops on the street, and it cost $1 billion. But because crime was rampant, everybody signed on. And it worked.

Community policing costs a lot of money. It's more expensive to have individuals patrolling the neighborhood than relying on technology . But since 1998, states, as well as the federal government, in large part because crime dropped, have started to slash budgets. We acted like the problem was solved. Crime was not at the top of the country's agenda anymore. As a result, since 1998, funding for community policing has been cut by 87%. That means fewer cops on the streets and in neighborhoods, building recognition and trust.

Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 5-6 Apr 28, 2015

The above quotations are from SOLUTIONS American Leaders Speak Out on Criminal Justice Brennan Center for Justice essays Edited by Inimai Chettiar and Michael Waldman. Click here for other excerpts from SOLUTIONS American Leaders Speak Out on Criminal Justice Brennan Center for Justice essays Edited by Inimai Chettiar and Michael Waldman. Click here for other excerpts by Joe Biden. Click here for a profile of Joe Biden.
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