Leggett increases funding for youth, slashes immigrant outreach program

In the face of rising gang crime, attacks on immigrants and a rapidly growing foreign-born community, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has moved to eliminate police officer positions tasked with doing outreach to immigrant residents.

The $4.3 billion budget Leggett released Tuesday eliminates the county police department’s funding for 12 community service officer positions, charged with doing outreach to minority communities and encouraging foreign-born residents to work with police. The budget also slashes funding for the Police Activities League program, a youth program supervised by some law enforcement officers.