The Obama administration on Tuesday announced $1 billion in grants to help keep police officers on the beat during the economic downturn — and tried to assure cities not getting aid that they won’t be stiffed.

The aid announced by Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder is just a fraction of what police departments across the country had hoped to get. For every $1 to be delivered, another $7 in requests will go unanswered under the grant program, Community Oriented Policing Services, commonly called COPS.

Four major U.S. cities are finding this out the hard way: New York, Houston, Seattle and Pittsburgh are among those that will not get money because the Justice Department decided other parts of the country simply needed it more.

About 7,000 state and local agencies applied for aid under the COPS program that is part of the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year. Of those, only about 1,000 were approved. Each state is entitled to at least $5 million in COPS money.

As local governments bleed red ink and officials look to plug budget gaps, they have swamped the government with a record number of requests for aid under the program. There is only $1 available in grant money for every $8 sought.

As a result, the Justice Department decided the most worthy cities were those that faced serious budgetary problems and those that have relatively high crime rates.

New York is less needy by both measures, officials said, because of its low crime rate and stable city budget. New York also has the largest single police force in the country, and received some money from a different stimulus program earlier this year, about $29 million.

Seeking to quiet the chorus of complaints even before the announcement was official, the Justice Department said Tuesday that New York City will get $7 million from another grant program. New York was almost certain to get those funds anyway, since that program delivers money based mostly on a pre-set population-based formula.

The Big Apple also has a touchy history with Washington when it comes to federal aid for police costs. In 2006, the Bush administration sparked an uproar when it slashed homeland security money for New York.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, criticized the COPS decision.

“It is disgraceful for New York City to be shut out just because the NYPD is doing such a great job under trying circumstances and Mayor (Mike) Bloomberg is doing such a wonderful job of managing the city’s finances,” said King, adding that the city “is the No. 1 terrorist target and should not be penalized for its success.”

“The New York City, Long Island region has the largest bull’s eye on its back of any region in the world. We are clearly the number one target of Islamic terrorists,” King told CBS 2 HD’s Marcia Kramer on Tuesday.

Bloomberg, in a statement, called the decision “disappointing, to put it mildly. To punish our police department because they have driven down crime with fewer resources shows the backwards incentive system that is sometimes at work in Washington.” He said the 9/11 attacks “were attacks on the nation and we should be receiving strong federal support for the NYPD to fight terrorism in the nation’s largest city.”

(Source: WCBSTV)