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Barack Obama on crime
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Both candidates rarely if ever mention crime on the campaign trail, even as violent crime has risen in some cities during the Bush administration. As a state senator, Barack Obama worked on death penalty reforms while opposing or sidestepping measures critics said painted him as soft on crime.
But according to his campaign platform and a questionnaire submitted to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Obama would prioritize anti-crime measures.
Obama supports increased funding for the popular COPS program, which has seen funding reduced under the Bush administration. His goal is an additional 50,000 police officers, along with new officer recruitment programs. Police advocates including the IACP have lobbied for top-down reviews of the criminal justice system, which has become disjointed by new homeland security and immigration initiatives. Obama says he support's the IACP's proposal of a new presidential task force to oversee a review and make recommendations.
While Obama does support the death penalty for terrorists, serial killers and child rapists, he has long backed capital punishment reforms. As an Illinois state senator he led a push for mandatory taping of police interrogations and opposed a measure expanding the death penalty to gang actvity, saying it unfairly targeted minorities.
Obama would also prioritize anti-recidivism measures to help reduce the prison population. He has proposed a prison-to-work program modeled on the welfare-to-work program, and calls for more drug courts and drug rehab programs.
Obama says he believes in a constitutional right to bear arms and agrees with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down the District of Columbia's ban on gun ownership. At the same time, he backs closing the gun show loophole, restoring the federal assault weapons ban, and repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts law enforcement's ability to trace gun data.
While Obama has pledged to redress what he says is the Bush administration's neglect of local law enforcement, he also wants to beef up federal coordination both domestically and abroad. He proposes risk-based allocation of homeland security dollars, and says he would direct the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for state and local law enforcement to report directly to the DHS secretary "instead of some lower-level official." Obama also says he would prioritize comprehensive immigration reform during his first year in office, and would call for greater resource allocation along the border.
Obama also supports federal legislation banning racial profiling by law enforcement at all levels.
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