NAPO meets with new COPS director
NAPO Executive Director Bill Johnson sat down with the new Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services( COPS) Phil Keith. Keith previously served as the Chief of Police of the Knoxville, Tennessee Police Department. NAPO President Mick McHale previously met with Keith at the Justice Department’ s Officer Safety and Wellness Work Group meeting last month.
Keith wanted to discuss his and NAPO’ s priorities for the COPS Office. Johnson told Keith of NAPO’ s disappointment with the direction the COPS Office has taken over the past several years, particularly under the previous administration, shifting away from its original intent to becoming a tool to move a distinct political agenda that was not exactly pro-officer. NAPO believes these policies were pushed at the expense of critical funding for the hiring and retention of officers – funding that should have been focused on officer and community safety measures such as lowering response time for emergency calls and two officer patrol units. Johnson stated that NAPO would like to see the COPS Program return to focusing on the hiring and retention of officers and relying on local police agencies to define what their communities need.
Johnson also stated that it is a priority for NAPO to see the peer mentoring pilot program that was established under the COPS Program by the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act as its own line item under COPS. Currently, the intent is to house it under the COPS and Bureau of Justice Assistance( BJA) joint VALOR Program, which only receives an average of $ 10-12 million every fiscal year and has several officer safety and wellness programs under it. The peer mentoring grant program is in high demand and needs to receive its own stream of significant funding to help departments across the nation establish peer mentoring programs for the mental wellbeing of their officers.
Protect & Serve Act introduced in the Senate
Senators Orrin Hatch( R-UT) and Heidi Heitkamp( D-ND) and Congressman John Rutherford( R-FL) have introduced the Protect and Serve Act of 2018, which provides for new criminal provisions for deliberate, targeted attacks on officers. Specifically, it creates federal mandatory minimum sentences for the assault or attempted assault and the killing of a state or local law enforcement officer when there is a federal nexus to the case, such as use of a firearm that has crossed state lines or the crime is connected somehow with interstate or foreign commerce.
This bill is critical, as there is a serious and growing trend of armed attacks on law enforcement officers. According to a December 2017 report from COPS and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 2016 saw a significant increase in ambush attacks on unsuspecting officers, with 21 shot and killed. Sixty-one percent of those officers were not answering a call for service or engaged in enforcement action
or performing official duties – they were targeted and killed just for the uniform they wore. Twelve officers were murdered sitting in their patrol cars.
NAPO has long been fighting to establish stricter penalties for those who harm or target for harm law enforcement officers. Any persons contemplating harming an officer must know that they will face serious punishments. NAPO strongly believes that increased penalties make important differences in the attitudes of criminals toward public safety officers and ensure protection for the community.
COPS Reauthorization Bill introduced
COPS Program has not been reauthorized since 2006, which means that Congress could easily wipe it out because there is no current authorization to appropriate funding for it. NAPO fights every year to ensure the program receives adequate funding, and the importance of this program speaks for itself as it continues to get funded. Several reauthorization bills have been introduced over the years, but NAPO has not supported many of them as they have included strings attached to the funding or refocused the Program towards policies with which it does not agree.
NAPO worked closely with Senator Amy Klobuchar( D-MN) on a straight COPS Program reauthorization that does not include any strings or extraneous policies to impose on departments. This legislation, S. 2774, was introduced on April 26 with five bipartisan cosponsors and has the support of the entire law enforcement community.
NAPO strongly believes that initiatives, like the COPS Program, that put and maintain more officers in the field to promote community policing and fight crime must be continued. As major cities across the country are facing an increase in violent crime for the first time in years and community-police relations are strained, now is not the time to put additional stresses on state and local law enforcement by leaving them short-handed. By reauthorizing this vital program, S. 2774 recognizes the benefits to law enforcement and the public of putting more police on the street.
NAPO supports bill to allow qualified officers to carry in school zones
Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler( R-MO) introduced the Police Officers Protecting Children Act, which would allow qualified retired and off-duty law enforcement officers who are authorized to carry concealed firearms to carry and, if necessary, discharge their firearm in a school zone. NAPO was actively involved in fighting for the passage of the Law Enforcement Officers’ Safety Act, which enabled off-duty and retired or separated officers to conceal carry across the country. We firmly believe that the changes this legislation makes will ensure that these officers will be able to carry firearms for the protection of themselves, their families and our nation’ s schools and communities. d
26 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2018