Lyndon Johnson on Crime

"Community Action" to address youth crime in poor areas

[Others] had been urging him to make a concept called "community action"--a vague proposal to involve the residents of impoverished neighborhoods in programs that affected them--a key part of the program. Opposed to the idea at first as being too vague, Johnson changed his mind, because it had emerged from a "Kennedy committee" and opposing it would therefore conflict with the continuity theme. "People would have said, 'Oh, he's not really sincere.'" Johnson's own explanation was that while "I realized that" the community action concept "might shake up many existing institutions, but I decided that some shaking up might be needed to get a bold new program moving."

War on Crime: $100M for state & local master plans

• to develop State and local master plans to combat crime,
• to provide better training and better pay for police, and
• to bring the most advanced technology to the war on crime in every city and every county in America.

National Crime Commission: all-out effort to combat crime

This is not a war that Washington alone can win. The idea of a national police force is repugnant to the American people. Crime must be rooted out in local communities by local authorities. Our policemen must be better trained, must be better paid, and must be better supported by the local citizens that they try to serve and to protect. And so I will recommend the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act. It will enable us to assist those States and cities that try to make their streets and homes safer, their police forces better, their corrections systems more effective, and their courts more efficient. The Federal Government will be able to provide a substantial percentage of the cost.

Discover the causes of crime and better ways to prevent it

• train local law enforcement officers
• put the best techniques of modern science at their disposal
• discover the causes of crime and better ways to prevent it.