We should develop educational television into a vital public resource to enrich our homes, educate our families, and to provide assistance in our classrooms.  We should insist that the public interest be fully served through the public’s airwaves.

And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress.

Now we come to a question that weighs very heavily on all our minds—­on yours and mine.  This Nation must make an all-out effort to combat crime.

The 89th Congress gave us a new start in the attack on crime by passing the Law Enforcement Assistance Act that I recommended.  We appointed the National Crime Commission to study crime in America and to recommend the best ways to carry that attack forward.

And while we do not have all the answers, on the basis of its preliminary recommendations we are ready to move.

This is not a war that Washington alone can win.  The idea of a national police force is repugnant to the American people.  Crime must be rooted out in local communities by local authorities.  Our policemen must be better trained, must be better paid, and must be better supported by the local citizens that they try to serve and to protect.

The National Government can and expects to help.

And so I will recommend to the 90th Congress the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act of 1967.  It will enable us to assist those States and cities that try to make their streets and homes safer, their police forces better, their corrections systems more effective, and their courts more efficient.

When the Congress approves, the Federal Government will be able to provide a substantial percentage of the cost: 

—­90 percent of the cost of developing the State and local plans, master plans, to combat crime in their area;

—­60 percent of the cost of training new tactical units, developing instant communications and special alarm systems, and introducing the latest equipment and techniques so that they can become weapons in the war on crime;

—­50 percent of the cost of building crime laboratories and police academy-type centers so that our citizens can be protected by the best trained and served by the best equipped police to be found anywhere.  We will also recommend new methods to prevent juvenile delinquents from becoming adult delinquents.  We will seek new partnerships with States and cities in order to deal with this hideous narcotics problem.  And we will recommend strict controls on the sale of firearms.

At the heart of this attack on crime must be the conviction that a free America—­as Abraham Lincoln once said—­must “let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the Nation.”

Our country’s laws must be respected.  Order must be maintained.  And I will support—­with all the constitutional powers the President possesses—­our Nation’s law enforcement officials in their attempt to control the crime and the violence that tear the fabric of our communities.