392 towns win funds for police> 4 Maine communities among recipients

WASHINGTON — President Clinton released a $200 million down payment Wednesday that will help 392 communities put 2,770 new police officers on the street.

“We’re determined to hit the ground running,” Clinton said at an upbeat announcement ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. “We together have made a commitment to make the American people freer of fear.”

Hundreds of police chiefs, mayors and other local officials gathered for the announcement allocating the first installment under the crime bill, including one who delivered a persuasive argument for community policing.

When an officer patrolling his Ocean City, Md., beat on a bicycle in August heard the cries of a woman being assaulted in a nearby townhouse, police were able to act quickly, police Chief David Massey said. They arrested a serial rapist linked to 22 other sexual assaults.

“Every additional police officer we can put on the streets does make a difference,” Massey said. The bicycle-patrol officer was financed under another federal program, he added.

The 392 communities that will share in the new money were chosen from 2,450 that had applied for but failed to receive shares of $150 million in police-hiring grants distributed last year. Some 250 cities received grants last year to hire a total of 2,000 police officers who should finish training and arrive on the streets this fall.

Maine communities receiving funds include: Berwick, $74,932; Dover-Foxcroft, $64,812; Lewiston, $225,000; and Norway, $137,186.

“We’ve been meeting daily since August, planning these grants,” Associate Attorney General John Schmidt told reporters Tuesday.

The $200 million is the first installment of $8.8 billion authorized by the crime bill over the next six years to hire more police.