THE ISSUES

PUBLIC SAFETY

Senator Boxer is a strong advocate of community policing, sensible gun laws, and other measures to make our streets and communities safer. She supported the historic 1994 Crime Bill, which has helped to lower crime in California by nearly 20 percent. She was a leader in passing the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban, and she wrote a bill to ban dangerous “junk guns” or Saturday Night Specials. She has also led the successful effort to provide federal support for local after-school programs, which have been shown to reduce juvenile crime, drug use, and gang membership.

• Senator Boxer supported the 1994 crime bill, to put 100,000 new community police on the streets, including over 15,000 in California. The crime bill included several of her amendments. She also fought to ensure California receives its fair share of federal funding from the Justice Department for the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS).
• Senator Boxer is an original cosponsor of legislation to extend the COPS program through 2009 and to hire an additional 50,000 police officers. In addition to providing funds to put more officers on the streets, this important legislation will give local law enforcement agencies access to new technologies.
• Senator Boxer opposed cuts proposed by the Bush Administration that would reduce by $1.2 billion federal block grant funding for law enforcement. These cuts would include elimination of the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant program -- the largest and most flexible source of federal funding for local law enforcement -- and an 80% reduction in COPS program funding. Senator Boxer voted to create these programs and has consistently supported their full funding
• Senator Boxer is fighting to increase funding for police departments, fire departments, and paramedics -- those who are the first to respond in the event of a terrorist attack or other disaster. Senator Boxer is an original cosponsor of the Domestic Defense Fund Act that would authorize an additional $7 billion per year in grants to first responders. These grants would help state and local governments pay for overtime costs, purchase equipment, upgrade communication systems, and make other improvements to increase preparedness.
• Senator Boxer is the author of the First Responders Homeland Defense Act to increase federal funding for interoperable communications - so local first responders can talk to each other during an emergency - and to help non-profit organizations provide training to frist responders.
• Studies have shown that children are more likely to get into trouble in the hours directly following school. Senator Boxer is the leading Senate advocate for expanding after school programs to give children a safe place to go.
• Since first introducing her After School Education and Anti-Crime Act in 1997, Senator Boxer has worked to increase funding for after school programs from $1 million in fiscal year 1997 to $1 billion in fiscal year 2003. The Leave No Child Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, included her bipartisan amendment authorizing an increase in after school funding to $2.5 billion by the year 2007, which will cover 3.5 million children.
• Senator Boxer strongly supports efforts to curb illegal drug use. She is working to increase resources available to law enforcement to go after drug dealers while also advocating a dramatic increase in drug treatment funding.
• Senator Boxer was instrumental in designating California’s Central Valley as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, bringing millions of dollars and other federal resources to fight drug production and trafficking in the Valley.
• The Senate's leader in the fight to ban "junk guns," also known as Saturday Night Specials, Senator Boxer introduced legislation which would effectively take junk guns off our streets by requiring American-made handguns to meet the same quality and safety standards as imported guns. These junk guns are inexpensive, easily concealable, and are the preferred weapons of juvenile criminals.
• Senator Boxer helped lead the effort to add sensible gun laws to the 1999 Juvenile Justice bill. Her amendment directing the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Attorney General to study manufacturers' efforts to market guns to children was the first successful gun-related amendment to the bill.
• For years, Senator Boxer has worked for legislation to require all handguns sold in the U.S. to be equipped with child safety devices. The Senate recently passed the Boxer amendment to do just that.
• Senator Boxer successfully offered an amendment to the 1999 Juvenile Justice bill to help schools put more community police officers on campus through the COPS in Schools program. This program provides federal grants to local communities to put police officers in schools who are trained to recognize problems and help school officials foster a safe environment. Senator Boxer's amendment would eliminate the local matching requirement.
• Senator Boxer introduced the School Safety Fund Act, which would make funding available to local school districts that want to take steps to make their campuses safer. Districts could use the funding for projects such as establishing anonymous tiplines for the reporting of potentially dangerous students and situations, hiring community police officers, providing training for school officials to detect early warning signs of troubled students, and establishing violence prevention programs.
• Senator Boxer was a leading cosponsor of Senator Judd Gregg's successful amendment to the 1999 Juvenile Justice bill, which would authorize $200 million a year for a school safety fund. Through the school safety fund, local schools would receive federal assistance to hire police officers for schools, purchase security equipment such as metal detectors, provide training for school officials to detect early warning signs of troubled students, and establish violence prevention programs.
• Senator Boxer cosponsored legislation to require criminal background checks at gun shows before gun sales.
• Senator Boxer introduced legislation that would prohibit the sale and transfer of guns to people under age 18, except by a parent, grandparent, or legal guardian.
• Senator Boxer introduced legislation to protect the rights of cities and other entities to sue gun manufacturers, dealers, and importers for the cost of gun violence.
• Senator Boxer strongly supports a ban on armor-piercing "cop killer" bullets.
• A law enforcement officer’s responsibilities do not stop at the end of his or her shift. Especially after September 11th, off-duty law enforcement officers must be able to protect themselves and the public. That is why Senator Boxer is a cosponsor of the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act that will allow qualified off-duty and retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms.
• Senator Boxer voted to increase penalties for persons convicted of a violent crime while wearing body armor and to prohibit violent felons from possessing body armor. Senator Boxer also voted to authorize grants to help local law enforcement agencies purchase body armor.
• Senator Boxer was an avid supporter of the Brady Law, which requires a criminal background check before the sale of a gun. She also strongly supported the assault weapons ban that was signed into law as part of the 1994 crime bill and supports reauthorization of this law which is scheduled to expire in 2004.
• To help alleviate a drain on local law enforcement budgets, Senator Boxer is cosponsoring legislation to ensure full funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) and to extend this program through the year 2010. She also opposed Administration attempts to eliminate all funding for SCAAP. SCAAP is a federal program to reimburse states and localities for the costs associated with incarcerating undocumented felons.
• Senator Boxer introduced the Violence Against Children Act to toughen Federal penalties for crimes against children and to assist local communities in their efforts to fight violence against children. The Violence Against Children Act would create a new Federal criminal statute for willfully injuring or attempting to injure any person under the age of 18. And it would provide federal help on violent crimes against children whenever local law enforcement asks for it. This legislation would also authorize federal grants for law enforcement and for nonprofit organizations that provide emergency medical treatment and counseling to children.
• Senator Boxer was the House author of the Violence Against Women Act that toughened laws against perpetrators and continues to provide funding for campus safety, battered women's shelters, and training programs for law enforcement to identify and better understand cases of domestic violence. The Act was incorporated into the 1994 crime law.
• An advocate of stopping illegal immigration at the border and the workplace, Senator Boxer authored an amendment that made it a federal crime to flee border checkpoints at high speeds. The amendment passed as part of the 1996 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. She also authored an amendment to increase the maximum prison sentences for people convicted of creating or using fraudulent immigration documents, which was signed into law as part of the 1994 crime bill.
• Senator Boxer is a cosponsor of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would aid federal authorities in assisting local hate crime investigations and prosecutions and would expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes based on the victim's gender, sexual orientation, or disability.