Did the Trump Administration Eliminate Funding for Community Policing?

Last Thursday night Joe Biden participated in a town hall in Philadelphia, where he answered questions from an audience and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

At one point, Stephanopoulos asked Biden about the 1994 crime bill, or the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a bill primarily co-sponsored by Biden during his time as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that was supposed to address rising crime with policing measures and increased incarceration. 

The 1994 bill also established the Office of Community Oriented Police Services, otherwise known as the COPS Office, which according to the Justice Department, was created to “assist law enforcement agencies in enhancing public safety through the implementation of community policing strategies.”

During Thursday’s event, Biden claimed that the Trump administration had zeroed out funding for community policing: “they eliminated the funding for community policing.” The claim is not accurate.