Police Corps Assistance Act of 1985

Police Corps Assistance Act of 1985 - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make contracts with and payments to institutions of higher education for loans to full-time undergraduate or graduate students who are in an eligible police corps of a State or local government.

Limits the amount of such a loan to not more than $4,000 per academic year. Provides that such loans shall be on such terms and conditions as the Secretary and the police corps involved may determine. Requires that the total amount of any such loan, plus interest, shall be cancelled for services as a full-time officer or employee of a police department at the following rates: (1) 20 percent for the first complete year (or its equivalent) of such service; (2) 30 percent for the second such year; and (3) 50 percent for the third such year. Allows waivers of payment to be granted for illness, accident, or other hardship.

Authorizes the Attorney General to approve a police corps as eligible for purposes of this Act for a period not longer than five years (which may be extended for additional periods) if: (1) participants are to undergo the same training as regular police officers before taking up police duties; (2) the program will be used to supplement but not supplant existing police workers, and the force level will be maintained at no less than the average of the three years before police corps workers are made available; (3) police corps workers are likely to be used for "on-line" duties, and their pay scales are set at a fixed percentage of regular pay and benefits which can be known before such workers decide to participate in the police corps; (4) the State within which the locality or unit is located has agreed to provide to each participant, from non-Federal sources, to cover the cost of attendance at an institution of higher education an amount no less than the amount of any loans obtained by the participant under this Act; (5) participants undertake to engage in police work for three years after graduation, and any participants retained after such period will be subject to collective bargaining agreements to the same extent as police workers who were not participants; and (6) such approval is appropriate in the light of relevant crime rates, populations served, and existing police force levels, and the need to achieve a fair distribution of available funds among the various approved police corps programs.

Authorizes appropriations for such police corps program payments to institutions of higher education for FY 1985 through 1989.