WILKES-BARRE -- The Wilkes-Barre police department wants to add officers to its force. The city applied for taxpayer money from a federal program, but the program is at risk of being cut.
“That's a step in the wrong direction!” said Senator Bob Casey (D) Pennsylvania.
United States Senator Bob Casey gave harsh criticism at a news conference to some lawmakers in Washington who want to cut funding from a federal program called COPS.
It covers the salaries and benefits of newly hired officers for the first three years. In Wilkes-Barre alone, it helped add 12 officers to the city's police force over the last two decades. But that could change.
"If you're going to propose funding reductions like that, you ought to have the data to back it up,” Casey said, adding more funding to the program could help local police departments, like the Wilkes-Barre police department.
The city's police force is applying for funding to hire an additional four officers through the program, but the chief wishes he could hire even more.
“If we get that additional funding to hire officers, the lower the crime rate will be in the city,” said Chief Robert Hughes.
Cutting the COPS program could affect local police departments, like the one here in Wilkes-Barre. That's something people in the city don't want to see happen.
“We're out-gunned, we're out-manned. The resources are necessary as of yesterday,” said Angel Jirau of Wilkes-Barre.
Angel Jirau is a community activist . He says Wilkes-Barre needs more men and women in blue to protect its streets.
“It's a trickle affect,” he said. “When you make our police forces weak, you make our community weak. Understand this, those who are on the streets harming us, they know this better than we do."
Some lawmakers who want to cut the COPS program believe it costs too much money, but some folks say this been a violent year for Wilkes-Barre.
In April alone, seven people were shot over a six-day period, and more boots on the ground could have an impact.