Washington, DC (myFOXla.com) - With unemployment on the rise, city officials across the country are concerned about a possible spike in crime.

"We were at 10 percent four or five weeks ago," says Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "Today, we're at 12 percent in the City of Angels. There's no question that, over time, that could mean some increase in crime. Particularly, property crimes."

That's why the mayor and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton are in Washington to ask for help hiring more police officers across the country. It's a formula that Chief Bratton says has a record of success.

It's one of the most secure investments you can make in public safety," says Bratton. "It's a shame Wall Street doesn't have the rate of return that American policing delivered for America in the 1990s. We wouldn't be in the boat we're in now."

Bratton's talking about the federal program which paid for 100,000 new police officers during the Clinton administration. He says extra boots on the ground brought crime down 30 percent.

"As we make it safer, tourists will come back," according to Bratton. "Kids will come back to colleges in our cities. Businesses will open again and create jobs. Those jobs will result in taxes being paid, but it all begins with public safety."

The stimulus provides a billion dollars for 11 new cops of the next three years, but Bratton and Villaraigosa are pressing for more.

Chief Bratton credits Los Angeles' seven straight years of lower crime to the investment the city has made in nearly a thousand new officers... success he wants to see spread to other cities.