NCJ Number
81686
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Senator Hruska discusses the development of legislation and programs to combat organized crime before an audience of law enforcement and justice officials, giving particular emphasis to LEAA's success in organizing State and local efforts. The Senator applauds this local approach and recommends against drastically redesigning LEAA.
Abstract
Several kinds of legislation have permitted investigators and prosecutors special tools against organized crime, including witness immunity and special grand juries with longer lives as authorized by the Organized Crime Act of 1970. Provisions of the 1968 Safe Streets Act allowed electronic interception, a major contribution to the thousands of illegal gambling prosecutions. LEAA has been one of the basic assets in successful enforcement efforts at the State and local level. LEAA has established special organized crime units, recruited and trained investigators and prosecutors, and developed organized crime information systems. Despite these successes, some policymakers would reject the principle of organized crime enforcement of the local level and would turn LEAA into a categorical grant program under complete Federal authority. Thus, the enforcement effort would be conducted at the Federal Government level, where local conditions and problems are an unknown and programs could not be tailored to individual jurisdictions. Senator Hruska also supports wiretap legislation and revision of the Federal criminal code called for in Senate Bill 1, in addition to other legislation. For the conference sessions, see NCJ 81673.