The proposed anticrime bill should take top priority in Congress and be passed immediately.

The House Democrats are trying to put through new legislation that will hopefully help cut crime in this country.

This new anticrime bill offers much needed aid to cities and individuals in an effort to increase safety on the country’s streets. Some of the aspects of the bill include money to help put more police on the streets of major cities, expanded drug treatment for prisoners in both federal and state prisons, money to aid schools with installing metal detectors, school courses teaching ways in which to come to peaceful resolutions of conflicts and a required five-day waiting period and background check for all people purchasing handguns.

If there is anything that could help improve the state of this country, it is lessening the crime that occurs. A complaint by many people living in metropolitan areas of large cities is that seeing a police car drive by is a special event and seeing officers walking the streets is a rare event. Putting more police on the streets would decrease society’s temptation to commit a crime.

Using tax money to provide drug treatment to prisoners could prove to be a point of contention with people. But people must look at the fact that prisons are overcrowded and getting prisoners off of drugs before they are released can only help in preventing them from committing repeat crimes.

Is there anyone out there who would be against a more regimented and regulated way of controlling handgun dispersal? Five days could prove to be the difference between the wrong person and the right person obtaining a handgun.

To bring this subject even closer to home, DeKalb could be one of the cities getting more police if this legislation goes through. DeKalb could see three new police officers for at least three years if the crime bill passes and DeKalb’s bid is granted. Overall, the crime bill could prove to be something that brings results, not excuses, to our city streets.

The anticrime bill won’t put an end to the amount of crime in society, but it could make a dent.