Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act

The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, signed into law on June 19, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was intended to assist state and local governments in improving the coordination and effectiveness of criminal justice systems throughout the United States. Reflecting the views of the president, Congress, and others that crime was an issue best handled by state and local governments, the law nonetheless brought the federal government into local crime control in ways the country had not seen since Prohibition.

A large portion of the Safe Streets Act dealt with providing federal funds to local police. Title I established a Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which authorized the U.S. attorney general to establish and fund state law enforcement planning agencies, which were responsible for developing plans to improve law enforcement at the state and local level and for awarding grants intended to improve law enforcement providing funds for the recruitment and training of law enforcement personnel. Funds were also provided for the construction of buildings and other physical facilities, for special training to combat organized crime, and for riot control.

Title I also established the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, whose mission was to encourage research and development to improve and strengthen law enforcement. The institute granted funds to public agencies, private organizations, and institutions of higher learning to discover new or improved approaches, techniques, systems, equipment, and devices for law enforcement. It represented the first time that the federal government had encouraged and paid for research into police systems and methods.

The other portions of the act, titles II to IV, dealt with more traditional law enforcement areas. Title II was concerned with the admissibility of confes sions, evidence, and eyewitness testimony in state prosecutions and with procedures for obtaining writs of habeas corpus. It limited the federal court's ability to reverse state criminal convictions and also limited the federal courts from ruling against eyewitness admissibility at both the state and the federal levels.

Title III standardized the use of wiretaps and electronic surveillance by requiring law enforcement officials to obtain a court order prior to the surveillance of a particular subject and by limiting to 30 days the length of time a particular surveillance could take place without obtaining an extension from the court. Two exceptions permitted surveillance without a court order under the authority of the president when the subject involved national security and also allowed more generally for a law enforcement official in an emergency situation to conduct surveillance without a court order, although the latter exception required court approval within 48 hours.

Title IV prohibited the sale of handguns, pistols, and revolvers by interstate mail to anyone who was not a dealer and limited the counter sales to residents of the state in which the sale took place. Although rifles and shotguns were exempted, the law was an attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are not legally entitled to possess them, such as juveniles, criminals, and those who had been determined mentally incompetent.

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