39th Annual NAPO Conference
A NATIONAL BOOST CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43
“As we have announced at prior meetings, we have received
a message of getting back into the fold, doing what we’re meant
to do when we established this organization: advocating on
Capitol Hill,” McHale commented in his opening remarks to
the conference. “We are moving along in the right direction.”
From Washington, D.C., where NAPO makes its headquar-
ters, to New York City, there is more and more evidence of the
resurgence in support and advocacy for law enforcement. In
welcoming delegates to town, Pat Lynch, president of the New
York City Patrolman’s Benevolent Association which was a
platinum sponsor of the conference along with the NJ State
PBA, presented an exhilarating perspective about how the
reception on Fifth Avenue earlier in the day could resonate
through the conference and across the country.
“The way people were lifting their cameras, that’s the news
that should be going out,” Lynch roused in a manner that can
only be defined as presidential. “The story we need to tell is
about how the heroes who went protected our rights to march
on Fifth Avenue, to worship as we choose and to stand at the
podium as union labor leaders and say what we believe. Our
job is to always tell our story to keep the spirit alive and con-
tinue to raise our profession.”
McHale followed Lynch by saying, “That concludes our pro-
gramming.” It is always hard to follow Lynch, but the 2017
NAPO Conference only built off the momentum his words in-
spired.
The culmination might come from the presentation by
Miller, who is now the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence
& Counter Terrorism for the NYPD, of the “Current State of
44
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ AUGUST 2017
Terrorism Both Internationally and Nationally Involving Polic-
ing (see full story on page 46). In providing an analysis of how
Al-Qaeda and ISIS became powerful networks, he advised, “A
network that came from an organization that turned into a
movement operates on a message.”
But when delivering the current state of the fight against
terrorism, Miller asserted, “We’re winning: 22 plots or capers
developed in New York City were all shut down.”
Numbers documenting NAPO’s winning effort on Capitol
Hill came from Director of Government Affairs Andy Edmis-
ton, who reported that during the past year the organization
has had more than 100 meetings with members of Congress.
She also noted that NAPO’s lobbying helped further the “Thin
Blue Line” and “Officer’s Rights” legislation.
“You will see more legislation like that being adopted,” U.S.
Representative Peter King said when he addressed the dele-
gates on the second day of the conference. King offered some
behind-the-scenes observations about how legislators in
Washington, D.C., are advocating for law enforcement.
“The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is very
pro-police,” King continued. “And in talking to the president, I
can assure you he is extremely pro-police. He’s very much on
your side. Believe me.”
At the last business session of the conference, NAPO Execu-
tive Director William Johnson added a final statement on the
presence the organization has achieved.
“NAPO continues to be recognized by the administration,
by the Department of Justice and both parties of congress,”
Johnson confirmed. “We continue to be the go-to organization
on law enforcement issues and policy decisions.” d