Sen. Hawley, hiring more cops won’t bring down murder rate without gun restrictions

Washington has finally noticed the violent crime crisis in Missouri.

On Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley ripped a page from the Bill Clinton playbook by offering a plan to hire 100,000 new police officers, using federal funds.

The junior senator — whose lust for lapdog Fox News interviews is unquenchable — said the additional officers would slow down a growing violent crime wave.

“Our families need protection,” Hawley tweeted. “Our cops need support. We should raise officers’ pay and put 100,000 new cops on the beat.”

All Kansas Citians want and need safe streets. But simply adding more police — while leaving the gun trade untouched, as Hawley and other Republicans do — won’t ever accomplish that goal.

“There’s not one answer,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday, as he announced a series of steps to curb violent crime, including tougher gun rules. He’s right. Let’s look at some facts.

Between 1993 and 2000, Washington spent about $7 billion on Clinton’s community-oriented policing hiring program, or COPS. The spending added about 88,000 officers to local police departments over that seven-year period (although even that figure may be too high).

Crime dropped during those years, but there’s little evidence federal COPS grants were the reason why. In 2005, a federal study concluded, the new officers reduced the violent crime rate by just 2.5%. Other studies report similar lackluster results.

The Kansas City Police Department recently used the COPS program to partially pay the salaries of a handful of officers, with no impact on the murder rate.

We would give Hawley and his party more credit for this idea, though, if it were a part of a comprehensive crime reduction strategy, including reasonable restrictions on weapons and improved mental health services.

Nah. That would take too much work. Better to grab a headline than actually reduce the bloodshed, right, Josh?

Bill Clinton’s plan was good for Bill Clinton, and that’s the success Hawley hopes to replicate.

This year, Missouri Republicans passed and Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill criminalizing local police cooperation with the feds on gun cases. The Second Amendment Protection Act, now facing a welcome court challenge, will almost certainly lead to more weapons on the streets, and more deaths.

The measure is so bad a local police chief resigned rather than enforce it. The law “will decrease public safety and increase frivolous lawsuits designed to harass and penalize good hard working law enforcement agencies,” former O’Fallon Police Chief Philip Dupuis wrote.

And Hawley? Just this week, he co-signed a letter with fellow gun fanatics attacking proposed federal rules on gun equipment and purchasing. The letter refers, approvingly, to “gun sanctuary” states, such as Missouri, which have unconstitutionally nullified federal weapons laws.

This is how Hawley and his pals back the blue.

Josh Hawley is no more serious about reducing crime than he is on any other subject, save the violent rejection of millions of presidential votes, and forcing his hypocritical supremacist worldview onto the Senate floor.

We know the political allure of adding more officers is very difficult to resist. Biden’s plan includes the diversion of COVID-19 relief funds into hiring additional officers where they’re needed, and to pay police overtime.

But again, additional federal (and state) funds for the Kansas City Police Department would not guarantee fewer violent crimes. Biden’s plans to enact stricter gun rules are far more crucial in the fight against the carnage in our neighborhoods.

No one should be fooled. Because without more money and support for real community outreach, an independent police review process, transparency, diversity and ending the flood of guns on the streets, the killings will continue, with or without more cops.