With fewer than two weeks remaining before election day, the largest association of police officers in the country officially endorsed Gov. William F. Weld '66 in a presentation yesterday morning in Hyde Park.

After endorsing President Bill Clinton several weeks ago, the Fraternal Order of Police crossed party lines to support Weld, a Republican, in his race against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), citing Weld's tougher crime record.

"The criminals who take a law enforcement officer's life deserve to pay with their own lives," Weld said in a press release.

At the ceremony, Weld underscored reforms he has enacted during his two terms as governor, which he said demonstrate his pro-victim stance.

These reforms include tougher sentences for all criminals and the adoption of the death penalty for those who murder police officers.

Weld also criticized Kerry's crime record.

"For 12 years, Senator Kerry has been fighting to keep federal laws more sympathetic to criminals than to their victims," Weld said in a press release.

But a press release from the Kerry campaign highlighted Kerry's role in the fight to put 100,000 more police officers--including 1,600 in Massachusetts--on America's streets.

The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, the largest city police union in New England, the Massachusetts Coalition of Police and the International Union of Police Associations endorsed Kerry earlier this year.