FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         VAW
MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1995                            (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
             ATTORNEY GENERAL DOUBLES PROGRAM FUNDS 

     Washington, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno today
announced that funds for a policing program to benefit domestic
violence prevention would be doubled.  Ms. Reno said the Justice
Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS) will increase the amount of funding available for the
Community Policing to Combat Domestic Violence Program from $10
million to $20 million. 
     
     The initiative, announced early last month, will fund
innovative domestic violence prevention programs carried out by
law enforcement agencies working in cooperation with local victim
services programs. The deadline for applying is November 17,
1995.     

     The Attorney General noted that more than 3,000 law
enforcement agencies nationwide have contacted the COPS Office
since the program was announced last month.  

     Speaking at a White House ceremony this afternoon to
announce National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Mark Wynn, a
Nashville, Tennessee, police officer and a victim of domestic
violence as a child, said that domestic violence is a problem
that cannot be allowed to escalate until women and children are
killed. Wynn, who heads the Nashville Police Department's unit to
fight domestic violence, said police must be able to intervene
before the abusers become murderers. He told the President at the
White House ceremony that "During the first six months of the
Nashville program, domestic murders have been reduced by 70
percent."

     Last Friday, the Senate restored funding for Justice
Department Violence Against Women programs to the full $175
million requested by President Clinton.  The House earlier this
year voted to cut the Administration's funding request by $50.

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