Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing Examines Law Enforcement Challenges 20170518

Subcommittee on crime, terrorism Homeland Security investigations will come to a order. C withoutt objection the chair is authorized to declare recesses at any time. We welcomeng everyone to today hearing on the challenges facing Law Enforcement in the 21st centuryy and i will recognize myself for an opening statement. Just a matter of quick personal indulgence, i would please everyone to remember our friend colleague thom tillis from north carolina. I want to thank everyone for being here and chairman good lat for this hearing. This week we celebrate National Police week and thats important to all the members of the Sub Committee that we have aaw hearg to honor our Law Enforcement officers. I want to extend a special thank you to the witnesses for being here. We have chuck canterbury, National President of fraternal order of police, my chief and director of publicc safety, Alonzo Thompson from South Carolina, whichever jim mcdonald chief art esoveto. Is that close . Li forgive me. Im from South Carolina. I may get it wrong before i get it right again from the great city of houston, texas. Each of you here today and all of our Law Enforcement officers acrosspt the nation dedicate yo lives and their lives to the precrept that undergirds the country and that is respect for and adherence to the rule of law and i know every member not only the subcommittee but every member offi congress would have their own personal story of how officers impacted their lives anden would have their own personal testimony to the respect they have for men and women of lawar enforcement. I know as i was preparing for this hearing, my mind went to an officer in greenville, South Carolina, by the name of allen jacobs. Allen, about this time last year, maybe a little bit more than a year ago, learned that he was going to be a father again. But thisd time, it was going t bead different. He had two boys. And this time, he was going to be a father of a little girl. And life had prepared very well to be a udfather. He was an outstanding student. He was a great athlete in greenville, South Carolina. He put the athlete schism and intelligence to work for the army. He was deployed to iraq for 15 months and even volunteered to live in the and a neighborhoods baghdad because he understood that all people want to live in peaceful, secure environment. After iraq, allen was deployed the haiti to help the people in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake but the tug of fatherhood is strong and its so strong that allen decided to return to the upstate of South Carolina but his desire to serve and w protect remained. So he left the uniform of the United States army and put on thee uniform of the Greenville City Police department and he pursued that calling with the same vigor andperf strength and professionalism that epitomized every other facet of his wife, s. W. A. T. Team, patrol officer, for schools or for gang resistance team, allen would stop his patrol car from time to time, carried a basketball in the trunk. Just to get out and shoot kids that with the could use a father figure like the one he was providing to his own boys and would provide to his daughter. I learned all of this about allen in a telephone call that i had with his mother two days before his funeral. This mannd that survived iraq a haiti andhe boot camp and polic officer training could not and did not survive an encounter with a teenage gang member who had just been ncreleased from jail. Never even had a chance to unholster his service weapon. Serve, defend, protect. He was ambushed. Hisn funeral gave all of us in South Carolina an opportunity to reflect not only on his life but thompson, the life of jason harris. We just lost in your own department. Responding to a callr up for ba. From one of his fellow officers. A russ sorrow or kevin carter or Eric Nicholson or any of the overer officers in the upstate South Carolina. Who gave the most precious thing they had to protect the most precious thing we have. Which is life. Law enforcement officers are willing to do what most of us are not willing to do and willing to interact with people most ofli us are not and miss things in life most of us are not willing to miss. So today we are not only here to honor you but listen and were here in part to memorialize those officers who lost their lives in thehe line of duty but also toho respect and pay honoro those that are still with us. So. I want to thank you for beig here and i am most interested in how we can help you do your jobs. There are s challenges in our criminal Justice System. A system that is not only respected but worthy of respect. And theres not a system we have in our country that cant be improved and i i am more than willing to hear ideas on how to improvela it. But there is Something Different about Law Enforcement officers. And if we lose that sight of that as a society that not only do they wear a uniform and a badge, but l they serve symbolicallyd as a line to a l and order and those folks that are not of good conscience. If we ever lose sight of that, were in trouble as a republic. So thank the witnesses. I would recognize the gentle lady ofth texas. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your courtesies and to the witnesses, thank you for your courtesy, as well. I was in a Leadership Meeting and i thank you for recognizing or at least accepting my apologies for my delay. This is ama very important hearing, i and as the chairman s indicated, it is important that we try to help each other. Law enforcement and community. And i want to acknowledge sheriff jim mcdonald, chief alonzozo thompson, mr. Chuck canterbury and chief art asivado for your presence here today and to say to you that we acknowledge in this week those who livese and those who have fallen. And we need to ensure that those who live recognizeny that we ner want to see anymore tragedies and families not seeing their home. One come in particular, i want to acknowledge assistant deputy chief clinton greenwood, Constable Office who was executed and do i haved on 4 3 17. Died on 5 18 15. Deputy sheriff Harris County sheriff goforth, 8 28 15. Detective walker of little elm Police Department died in january 17. And then five aufrts officers among others who died july 2016, brent thompson, Sergeant Michael smith, senior corporal lauren aarons, patrick zamaro and michael control. I went to that memorial and stood with those family members and we will never forget. It is important in todays hearing to explore the challenges and seek strategies for modernizing our Law Enforcement practices and policies to p increase police safety,al nationwide and preven the use of lethal force against unarmed citizens and selfless Law Enforcement officers. We want to make sure that we look at both sides of the issue and particularly we want to hear from you about Building Trust and respect. We want to understand what has been used by many, police militarization, or how we can balance the protection that the communityas needs with the varis assetsts that you utilize. The need for responsible and comprehensive data, i believe that data is a science of police work. And then, of course, to be able to deal with the question of lethal force andve protecting yr lives and those of the community. As judge hans said, if we keep our democracy, there must be one commandment, thou shalt not ration justice. And so, today, i look forward to hearing from you, as well. And in keeping with this idea of justice, just a want to make a point. Mr. Chairman, i have made before. And that is, that this full committee and we are the subcommittee on crime as the judiciaryd committee in the Senate Subcommittee led by our esteemed senator, senator lindsey graham, we must have a fullof investigation and demandn investigation of the president , the attorney general and Top White House aides,s democrats the oversight and the Judiciary Committee are asking for all memorandum that deals with the ending of the tenure of director comey and as well the allegation that the president asked directorin comey to end the fly investigation and certainly the release of classified informationid recognizing that e president can release classified information but what jeopardy have they put assets and Intelligence Community members in and, of course, our allies. I read into the record we are concerned that the continuede failure of House Republicans to take action in the face of this onslaught of allegations will cause significant damage to the faith that the American People haveof in the credibility and integrity of our committees and the house of representatives. S we have a solemn obligation under the constitution to act as a checkre on the executive bran and to hold the President Trump accountable. Again, notican as democrats and republicans, but as americans. It is time that we Work Together to be able to find the truth and, obviously, the truth will be our guide. I thank all of you for your service and your commitment to law and order and to the constitution. And for the service that we will never be able to thank you for as youu o protect the American People. I thank you so very much. Ill yield back. Gentle lady yields back. We have a distinguished panel today. Ill begin byd swearing in our witnesses. He if you would, please rise and raisee your right hapds. Do you swear the testimonyru yo will give isru the truth, the whole truth and nothing but so god . You you can sityo down. Illid introduce and then recognize you individually for your opening statement. Ill tell you on the front end all of the members have access to the Opening Statements. All of theiz members have acces to thehe Opening Statements so i could f get you to summarize within the fiveminute time period that would allow more time for questions. Our first witness is sheriff jim mcdonald, sheriff mcdonald is of los angeles, california, Los Angeles County, california. Welcome, sheriff. Our second witness is chief Alonzo Thompson. He is o not just the chief, to the director of public safety. And the district i represent in spartanburg, South Carolina. Well respected and well regarded in my hometown. Ourne third witness is mr. Chuc canterbury,du the president of e National Fraternal order of the police. Well, our fourth witness is no stranger to Law Enforcement. Were delighted with his service in the city of houston. He is a chief art accevedo. Active member in Law Enforcement issues andnd everybodied from california to texas. Most o recently in city of aust and now serveses a a chief of police in houston, texas. Ab i would only offer to say that we have a very collaborative effort on Law Enforcement and im very pleased to say that the chief worksal with all of our l enforcement agencies from federal toe local to ensure the travels of safe houstonians and those who come toou visit our great city and delighted to welcome great chief art acevedo. And if family members are here, i want to acknowledge them, as well, becausean theyre so very important to our Law Enforcement officers. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Welcome, chief. And acknowledge the Ranking Member who is come, mr. Conyers. Thank you. Sheriff mcdonald, you are recognized for your opening statement. Thank you for inviting me to testify this morning. As sheriff and a peace officer more than 355 years it is an honor to represent the sheriffs sworn to protect more than 100 Million People across our great nation. Policing in america has never been more complex because we are the First Responders to some of americas greatest social challenges,io growing opioid epidemic, cyber terrorism, home grown extremism and Mental Illnessst across our nation, the are the 21st century challenges we should and must meet together. Ive submitted written testimony that expands on what i can shar here due to time. I will be able to touch briefly on a number of critical topics. Lastac fridays cyber attack to strike 150 countries should make it Crystal Clear how vulnerable we are and the potential scale of such an attack can have. These areth complex threats tha often lurk just beneath the surface of todays news headlines. Often theyre known only after the threat of a pending attack is made or worse after the assault itself. These are o threats that challee our government and bureaucratic institutions to be adaptive in the solutions and in our collective response. There isnt a Sheriffs Department inne this nations immune to the impact of Mental Illness and drug addiction having on the jail systems. The t deinstitutionalization of the mental ill in the 60s and 70s turned the jails and prisons into defacto Mental Health hospitals. My jail system in Los Angeles County is nationsto largest mentalln health intuition. 70 of the cell matds have a Mental Illness. Some sort of serious mental issue. Upwards of 5,000 inmates need treatment for their illness. That population is forecasted to double over the next ten years. In n l. A. County we need to invt more than 2. 2 billion infa a n consolidated Treatment Facility that can provide thehi Mental Health and medical services for this population which has nowhere else to go. Los angeles county jail along with reichers island complex in new york city and the Cook County Jail in chicago are the top three n largest mental heal carere providers in the nation. This is a failure of our criminal Justice System nationwide. Are there times when jail is most appropriate option . Yes. But its ourio experience that jail isic frequently not the be solution. As a dnation, we have a critica need andon a moral obligation t build capacity for Treatment Options in our communities. We have the ability to support Strategic Partnerships with our Mental Health and social Service Agencies foror treatments to stabilize the individuals and keep them out of our jail system. We have a ace professional obligation to provide training for our officers of whom too much is expected. Too often our deputies arrive at a caller for service, always facing the unknown and frequently facing a situation where theyre asked to take on the roleun of a Mental Health professional. In Los Angeles County alone in areass policed by the Sheriffs Department, 911 calls of people of Mental Illness grown 55 since just 2010. We need toio fund and provide crisis intervention training to all firstel responders both Law Enforcement and fire personnel. Let us Work Together toward a nationwide expansion of highly Successful Program ofsi teamingp Mental Health professionals with Law Enforcementam officers who work as an intercept first responder. In the Los Angeleses county, fo instance, we have had the teams since 1990s. Otheris citys have a variation this program which are also highly successful but seriously overworked and understaffed. Most cities and counties operate such a program cannot provide the serviceme 24 7 and many plas it becomes very difficult to respond in a timely manner. However, in our experience, when a team such as this is called to a scene, we have the ability to divert the individual away from the criminal Justice System and into proper Mental Health Treatment Facilities in 99 of the inencounters. The i third step is diversion. Id like to thank congress for passing the national stepping up initiative which provides counties andta cities of fundin to divert those dealing with illness away from our county jails and look at c dedicated Mental Health courts to recommend Better Options for those suffering from mental jail or ther than prison. And lastly, we need to have an adult conversation about what to do with those suffering from mentalho illness that do end upn the criminal Justice System and in ourgr jails and prisons. We as a nation agree that not everyonene suffering from menta illness can be diverted. Some individuals pretrial and classified as a harm to themselves and to others will end up in our jails. As rsuch, we need to provide t safest setting for them to receive the treatment and get the help they need. The mcsa and nsa seek to be a positive source of ideas. We look forward to continuing a dialogue and working with you. Wefi cant be successful unlesse as ak nation are committed to finding solutions. I thankio the chairman for his commitment to collaboration and willingnessy to engage in Law Enforcement on these issues so critical to all of us. Thank you so much. Thank you, sheriff. Chief thompson. Good morning. Mr. Chairman, the members of the House Committee on the judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism, Homeland Security and investigations, im truly honored by the investigation to address this distinguished body. The challengesur facing the Law Enforcement in thee 21st centur are numerous and varied depending on local, state or entity. Domestic terrorism, gangs, narcotics, gun violence, cyber crimes, social media, Behavioral Health and Highway Safety issues pose significant challenges for Law Enforcement at all levels and this is not an all inclusive list by any means. In addition to those widely recognized searches, there exists three pressing mat earls demanding immediate attention, especially at the local level. Community policets relations, recruitment and retention, and budget tearpr restraints. Our ability and capacity to respond appropriately andar effectively to thew aforementioned concerns are largely dependent on how well we manage these three foundational issues. Contacts have gotten the attention of our nation, increasingly citizens are interested in how Police Departments operate and the decisions ahead by Law Enforcement practitioners. Now more than ever questions about policed accountability, Police Training and Organizational Culture are commonplace. As a result off intense scrutin, improving Community Relations is ra pa ra mount. Even agencies such as my own traditionally valued and focused the efforts on Community Engagement mustip continually strive to strengthen those relationships and to build new ones. We will not beg ass responsive successful without strong collaborative partnerships. But baby boomers retiring and shrinking applicant tools, recruitment is a struggle for Law Enforcementt today. The dangers of the profession and intense scrutiny and harsh criticismwh discourage some fro entering and or remaining in Law Enforcement while others pursue morend lucrative less stressful and safer career fields. Andd retention has been negatively impacted by tightening budgets that resulted in stagnant wages, increased cost of employeee benefits and limited performance based incentives and special skills pay. Thisth funding issue segues int the third and final challenge i wish to share with you this morning, budget darey restraint. In aclimate of many plagued with economican woes and are forced make very difficult decisions about budgets, many Police Departments are underfunded, consequently as become increasingly difficult to compete with Corporate America for qualified applicants and to retainin experienced personnel. We are also facing growing necessity for advance technology. For example, bodyetha worn came less lethals. Weapons, integrat recordsnd management and communications systems, some of these areli amounted to unfunde mandates. However, in the 21st Century Policing environment,si these a not niceties. They are, indeed, necessities. For instance, many Law Enforcement agencies committed to equip officers with body worn cameras whichch expanded opportunities for officers to capture more of those Critical Police citizen encounters but this Technology Comes with a cost. Additional funding from governmental sourcestr will be needed not only for equipment but for training that enhances the diversity conscienceness of Law Enforcement professionals such as implicit bias, deescalation, use of force and other subject matters deemed necessary. Although the specific needs may vary the challenge or dilemma is the same. And in conclusion, i reiterate these issues to be addressed immediately andnd enhancing Community Relations is fundamentally to gathering information and proactively combatting crime and terrorism. Thishi includes building communy partnerships to solve an array of societial problems. Rekrooutding and retaining professionals at the local level will ensure that we have a highly tranled andvi experience work force to provide Police Related services and conduct complex investigations whether they involve criminal inactivit terrorism or a nexus of the two. We need enhanced capabilities to handle Current Issues as efficiently as possible andtu ge us thepa time we need to look forward and toward the future to anticipate andie prepare for ne crime trendsia and emerging opportunities. Again, i appreciatege the opportunity to share my views on the challenges facing Law Enforcement in the 21st centur and i thank you very much for your catime. Nt thank you, chief. Mr. Canterbury. Good morning,d mr. Chairman, Ranking Memberit jackson lee, disting erwishled members of th subcommittee. Im here this morning representing 330,000 me believes of our Law Enforcement community and i like to take this opportunity too thank you for having this hearing at this very opportune time with National Police week just concluding. Today, mr. Chairman, my me believes are concerned about their safety. According to a recent fbi report analyzing 50 cases in which officers were shot and killed, 28 of the asill lants were motivated by a hatred for police or t for social political reaso. Others were h simply out just out to get justice and told their friends and families or members or use social media to communicate their intent to hurt Law Enforcementl aufrtss. The fop long argued that hateful,rs amplified social med isep leading to violence direct at Law Enforcement officers and i think the report by the fbi bears this out. Our views of Law Enforcement as a society changed in the past few years. H and the respect we once had in thent communities and amongst o elected leadership is greatly been diminished. A recent gallup poll showed that Police Officers were 77 excuse me, sir. 77 Approval Rating in this country. Mr. Chairman, every american thatt looks at Law Enforcement officer should look a at him at somebody thats there to defend the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but unfortunately, with social media and the media, excessive force, terms like actedd stupidly and Police Brutality become a common term. Another persistent false narrative recycled in the news is militarization of Law Enforcement. Mr. Chairman, i subl mitev its moret modernizing. The Previous Administration ignored thest input of Law Enforcement community and imposed broad restrictions. Throughout the program, created by president clinton, many basic items were provided to departments that couldnt afford those. Huge and harmful overreaction to negative Media Coverage in the fake militarization narrative. The 1033 program administered by Ther Department of defense was singled out for specific criticism but the executive order imposed new prohibitions and restrictions on equipment throughout the federal government including the doj and Homeland Security. I dont need to point out that the pulse nightclub shooting, the San Bernardino shooting, many of that equipment was utilizedrs to protect Police Officers lives and sit senls lives. Not militarized vehicles. Theyre demilitarized. We are working withre the new administration to report to restore the integrity of the programs and urge this subcommittee to consider hr 426, the protecting lives using surplus equipment act. The need to restore the programs and provide assistance to state and local Law Enforcement is not just limited to equipment. The administration of the office of Community Oriented policing Services Needs to be funded fully as it has been in the past years. We have less police on the streets today andne recruitment and retention is one of the Biggest Challenges facing Law Enforcement in the 21st century. There are less men and women policing andnd Violent Crime isn the rise in many of our cities. For this reason, i urge the subcommitteero to support fully funding the Cops Hiring Program and the edward burn memorial and justice grant programs. These programs have been a god send to local Law Enforcement and in these challenging Economic Times state b and loca Law Enforcement officers cannot perform theirex duty without the extra funds. Mr. Chairman, i spoke about the challenges facing our profession as a whole. Law enforcement officerss are expected to be mentally healthy and resilient but the job and situations we must respond to takes a toll on the Mental Health off an officer. Officers responded too a shootig or who havehi lived through this like the attacks in dallas and baton rouge or who responded to event on sandy hook ores the pue nightclub may need to be dealing with these experiences. Thats why we were very pleased that senator donnelly 867 bill passed in the senateel jed. The fop helped craft that legislation as well as hr 2228 that has been introduced into the house. This bill will allow the attorney general to work with the department of defense and veteran affairs to collect information aboutan the Mental Health programs provided to officers and will expand officer wellness. During this week, National Police week where we honor 234 of americas heroes who passed year, this is a very appropriate time for congress to take up these issues. Mr. Opchairman, i thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I would like to point out that as of last night, we lost our 18th officer by gun fire which put us at 6 higher than the rate last year. To date, 95 aufrtss shot in the line of duty. 18 of them have perished. A thank you, mr. Chapter bur. Chief. Acevedo. I want to thank you for invooiting me to testify here today. I appear as the chief of police of the city ofn houston, fourt largest city in the nation and nations fastest growing. It is my privilege to speak to you where im the first Vice President of the organization represents the 69e th largest metropolitan Law Enforcement agencies in the United States. As a police chief of two cities with a total of 31 years of Law Enforcement experience, i can say with unqualified certainty that building strong bonds with communities is what makes Law Enforcement agencies successful and communities safe. A respectful relationship with the people we serve enables police to overcome what i consider to be the biggest challenge today. Regaining the mcommunitys strong. For strong relationships with the community, Police Departmentsen must engage all m believes of the community Building Trust so when something goes wrong which is inevitable, the committee knows that the department will address the problem openly and take positive action to create deficiencies. One of the challenges of Law Enforcement facing is Building Trust among the community is immigration enforcement. Recently as sb 4 passed in the state of texas which really opensor local Law Enforcement t thegr perception of being immigration agents. Immigration urenforcement officers, were seen as that, it really hurts the bonds of trust that we have built over the last many, many years. Immigration enforcement is a federal function that cannot be delegated. Immigrant communities begin to fear locale Police Officers whe theyre too heavily involved in immigration enforcement. And then they stop reporting crimes and coming forward as witnesses or victims which increases thehe victimization o immigrant communities and allows criminal conduct to go on unchecked making the Community Less safe. Community engagement must include everyone if a Police Departments going to be t successful and we urge the congress, as we have been urgig years now to enact co comprehensive Immigration Reform instead of hodgepodge. Recruitment and retention, chief brown nailed it, after the dallasn tragedy, where he said called on young men and women instead of protesting to put down the signs and sign up. Make a difference. Join the Police Department. That we can and nd will make a continue to make a difference. Thanks to his call, 334 increasein occurred, occurred i the recruitment there in the city of dallas. But large cities like houston are h cash strapped and constan battle for staffing and resources. We are hundreds of officers short as mayor turner has so aptly stated time and again as a Police Department and adding more Unfunded Mandates doesnt help andof we need to maintain funding. One of the things that we hope, as myy colleagues have said, is that the cops office continued to have full funding. Our jag g grants. Any grant. Hidad grants. Federally funded grants are really key t and asset forfeit chur. Taken from criminals, criminal sind kaits and placed in the hands ofet Law Enforcement, it money that is put back in the Crime Fighting and keeping the community safe. We should notot allow departmen to take money from people unless there isom really a criminal predicate and we are taking them from crooks and not from hard working americans. Decrees. While they have a good value, we hope that as we move forward that that will be the hammer thats leftar as a last resort. And that we move towards a variety of memorandums of agreements. While most officers serve with sensitivity and respect, police work can be violent and ugly. There are also times when obviously we do notai do the rit thing. We have to maintain the trust of the folks that we serve and we believe that collaborative approaches with the department of justice, memorandum of agreements, takesst off the monitor and quite frankly a Cottage Industry where millions ofen dollars should be spent on training, onlo equipment, and o accountability at the local level and placed at the hands of the mayors, the councils and ultimately the community at the local level and department of justice go wasted and given to federalag monitors that quite frankly, again, its become a Cottage Industry and i have more information on that in here. We need strong oversight. We support strong oversight and want to be smart and, again, not waste the precious dollars. A heart feltan partners of the community is really the most important thing that we can do. They are o the greatest force multipliers and urge thehe membs of congress to work on issues to help build communities of trust, bridges of trust and not tear down those bridges. Thank you. U. Thank you, chief. Chair will recognize the gentleman of ohio, mr. Shep. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I apologize in advance. Im theee chairman of the Small Business committee and we have a meeting at 11 00 that i have to chair so t but i will be her long enough to askhi questions d thank you for your testimony. If i could go to sheriff mcdonald and chief thompson first. Same t question. Address to both of you. I think you had both mentioned the body worn cameras and could you touch upon both the positives andce the concerns th a local Police Department has when youre considering whether to go towards, you know, body cameras andnd maybe you first, chief . Thank you for the opportunity. A number ofment issues i think s to bern addressed when a department isam looking at deploying body worn cameras, the hardware which is thehe cheapes of the wholeth equation and the everything that goes behind and that wouldou inl collude the ability to be able to retain on a cloud or a server the video and theres tremendous amount of video in this camera rolling all the time. Behind that, again, is the policies in place andnd the agreements with the d. A. And others as to when youre going to a release the footage and wh youre going to hold it as part of an ioinvestigation. This needs to be covered up front with the publics expectations being realistic. And then on the other side is the personnelsc costs. The amount h of discovery that created as a result of having the cameras and the footage is an inord nant burden on an organization if they dont have already in place the personnel who are trained and certified to be able to go in and identify the appropriate amount of footage to t disclose and to be able then in the cases where they need to be able to pixellate and imagine a scene of aca backup or help call goes ou and 20 deputies respond with body cameras rolling and go through whateverha the workloads times 20 to deal with that and thats a i burden i dont thinks a ressed enough and tremendouswa expense on top of e hardware and the things that people are aware of on the surface. Thank you veryf much. Th chief thompson. I think heon gave a very detailed response. I concur with everything he mentioned. That additional cost, again, unfunded manual dates i referred to in my remarks earlier. The storage fees. The upgrades that are required. Pose some hardship on some of the local municipalities but in additions. To that, im a stron purr poe innocent of the body worn cameras and make sure we realize its not a panacea. It doesntis solve all the probables but it is definitely a tool thats needed. But because of the cost involved itsen been cost prohibitive fo some of my fellow chiefs and Law Enforcement agencies to acquire them. Thank you very much. Mr. Canterbury, ill go to you next if i can. I happen to be part of an institution, the congress, that we get excited when we get hired and. Then the teenls and popularity and doesnt occur much. Most of the polling were down there with ebola and head lice. The policing is 77 public support which i think is tremendous. On the other hand, you also indicated i think it was 28 of the murders of Police Officers aroundnd the country are motivad by people who have a hatredpo o Police Officers or a political point of view which allows them to s justify shooting, you knowa Police Officer, ambushing he or she. I enmean, it is just incredible. But it certainly happens. Are there any steps that you would suggest on how we as a community, a society can reduce the amount of public hostility that some people in our country have towards Law Enforcement or is it just an element that youre always going to have live with and protect yourself from them . What would you suggest . Im a Firm Believer that theres some j bad people. There are just some bad people but in the35 last 25 and 30 yea, Law Enforcement hasof become th only forms of government that many local governments have as a resource to go into economically depressed areas. We believe that if theres not a holistic approach to Building Trust, in communities with eve aspect of government, Law Enforcement cannot be sent in to a neighborhood to clean the neighborhood up. Because if you dont attack the underlying rootyc problem of poverty, youre never going to break that cycle. You know, people forget that Marilyn Mosby asked for high intensity patrols in the area where freddy gray was killed. Or died. And it was the only arm of government that the Baltimore City officials had to work with n that neighborhood. If theres not a total holistic approach with all aspects, communityy activist, churches, schools then we are never going to address the problem, especially in economically depressed areas. Job training, unemployment, single parent, allor of those issues have to be attacked before we are going to see improvement. Thank you very much. Gentleman yields back. Chair would recognize the gentleman of michigan, Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Conai yerls. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ive never been on a panel where weve had this much police and Law Enforcement leadership at one time. And so, im going to go to the heart of my relations with the police that have been so important to me all my life. And that is, the importance of us improving the relationship between c the africanamerican d otherr minority communities and yourselves and your officers. This has been an ongoing problem, and i support you on the funding. I support your concepts. But you know, theres a certain element in Law Enforcement that is racial, that is antidiversity. And lets just speak as honestly as you can for a few minutes about that part of your relationship because you cant buildd trust if there is glarin instances of police disrespect for the minorities and communities and theres been a long history of that. Were still coming out of racism in our society and then Law Enforcement it becomes glaring. And n id like to ask the natiol president of the fraternal order of police to lead off this discussionwi and i hope all of u will join in with your honest opinions. Mr. Conyers, i dont know when and how that personal bias will be gone in this country. But i do know that in my 30plus careerer in Law Enforcement i he never been taught that racial profiling washa a legitimate police practice. I have never been taught that anybody of color should be arrested att a higher rate. Ive never been taught that everybody shouldnt be treated fair andco equally in this country. But we do recognize that there is implicit bias and there are individual officers that may have those bias. Its ourur job to make sure tha those officers are rooted out and put out of this career field. But again, it cant be the first call of a politician when a white officer arrests somebody of color. Itit can never just be the firs the firstay thing that we hear from social media. Freddy gray, for instance, there were three africanamerican officers involved and three white officers involved. And to say that the three africanamerican officers committed some sort of a heinous act because of color is just ludicrous and but we believe working together with our communities we can help build the trust but thea we cannot be answer tone that, mr. Conyers. We cannot go into the inner city and fix the ement problems unless we attack the underlying probables of poverty. But i want to see and im watchingy, carefully the Police Systems across this country to make sure that everybodys doing as much as we can to root out some of these bad apples. There are only a few but it only takes one to really create a very negative view. Who else here would like to make a comment . R yes, sir . Thank you, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. When you look at where we are in america y. Today, i believe we he come apr long way. We certainly always theres room for improvement. The police are called to situations that are out of control. We o get there when situations e fueled often by emotion, alcohol, drugs or Mental Illness. So its always a dynamic situation when you get into it. Race, onn top of it, is kind ofa third rail of american policing, if you will, and we look whats happened recently and over our history in this country. I think the answers are to continue to talk aboutut it. People are afraid to talk about race. Unless we engage, unless we talk about itt we wont come to a place where were all proud of what we are doing. ,0 what we are doing. There are 18,000 Police Departments in our nation. Arebe they all the same . They are not. We are working to be able to be raise the bar for every department in america so that we arefe comfortable that anybody goes out there in the field represents thend profession. Today we arere dealing with isss of misconduct and trying to be able to get to the root of that. Because when you look at you know the amount of police in this country thats about onethird of 1 of our population charge with the public safetyic for the remaind. Thats not very much that we can be able to do that on our own. We have to be ablerk to work wi the t communities that we are privileged to serve in a way that it is positive. In a way that we are all in the same team. Ic it. Goes back to not only i thik is the race issue but police go where crime is and thats drived by poverty and lack of police being inserted in a situation, it is volatile and highly charged. Police get to blame for whatever the underur lining reason was b beyond the control of what we can do to affect the roots. The big step is focusing on the Youth Program thats not a core police missiont. But it is one that we taken on because we see the need to do that. If we a cambridge that gap at a early age and be able to help kids after schooll to have a sae environment, we do that la with our youthir foundations, ensuri them to do their homework and after School Activity sport programs and working on computers and those kinds of things. Thats where well look in the future to workco with kids at t earliest opportunities. If we dont do anything more today with you four to to me, the most important thing that you take back the message that there is people like myself whos been working inn differen capacity long before i came to congress in Race Relations. These are factors that are not solely of the police in the black community. They come from these related concerns of poverty and unemployment and other educational disadvantages. I need make sure that you take this back with you because you will thankca some of those peop who may be thinking they can get out ofra line. The Major Concerns is improving Race Relations for me with all other folks that maybe considered minorities in their community. Who wants the last word . E we are three minutes over. If you want the take a quick stab in answering that question. It is important for us to go overso four minutes over. Very kind. Thank you for the question. It is so important that we engage our community doing non confrontational times to break down barriers of foreign relationships. It translates to collaborative partnership. Gentleman to my right mentioning, hiring the right people o and having the work foe of t representatives of the community that it serves israel important. By being responsible in an e an the desire is key and mentioned addressing that strongly and ll directly for that is extremely important as well. But so much of what we can do are proud of a good mighty situation is taken place. You lay the ground work for that. Stress that enough and i just to sayyo this if you go online d see under the new light, you will see one of our latest initiatives where we brought people together no matter what your social economicpr status, are working on a publics art project, that caused us to talk and sought building relationships and bridgingco ga. It is evidence of what we can do when we come together with unity in purpose of that in mind. Thank you, mr. German. Y thank you all of you for yor importance beingmy here today. I am a son of a first responder. My father was blown up in an ng explosion. I grew acup, he was a Training Officer andha you grew up at th fire Police Training academy. I have tremendous respect in which you do and what you face. Mr. Cantberry, i believe and maybe you do as well people dont understand the challenges that you face. I believe language is important and i appreciate you making that distinction. Em ii wish that we could do something about that if we are going to try. The question for you mr. Canteberryry of home grown terrorists, theyth call the thrt environment in the country right now one of the most serious since the 9 11 attack. I am wondering in your opinion do we see an increase in smallei or localized attacks. I think social media allowed terrorist organizations over there to influence young americansam in the united state and glamourize. That type of terrorism. I haveen served for president obama and president bush and it is always a major concern and it will continue to be. We w are obviously going to seen uptake in lone wolves style and an american attacker that have never been in that part of the world but energized by social media and those t markets. Recognizing that to be tb ca the case, all of us feel the burden and feel that we need to do everything that we can to address that threat. Aa follow up question is adequately repair and respond to these local attacks seem to be popping up, do you think better performance, specifically in terms of coordination among various First Responders. I think communications from the federal level to state local has greatly improved since 9 11. It can continue to get better and i would like to point out that we stillem do not have a radio system in our country. We are i much closer than we we. Testifying in 2003 after 9 11, the importance ofsy that and th contracts for building that system of 2017, the communications must continue, it needs to be both ways. Jttfs must be fully funded and the center must be funded. Maybe this question can be for any of our distinguished members. The police chief back in my home state of hlouisiana are facing growingre threats and resources that you guys are struggling with. Challenges are going upor and resources are going down. Kanani of you elaborate of the 1033 program and how it is a critical source of your department or county and personal equipment. Let me take a stab at that. The 1033 program is not a problem. It is all aboututol proper trai and proper policy and proper use. I remember when the n rafts came out, people it was not good for the types of streets. I defended that because we had huge floodings. It was not the equipment, it was a policy that was used implemented to the way it is used. We have helmets and binoculars and Office Equipment and helicopters and again, all these and there is no offense of other than rifles and other than that it is all about protecting the American People. N we hope that again, we are thoughtful andbe i dont think e 1033 program have been destroyed by any means but that we keep this Program Alive and well. Anybody else . If i can say the 1033 program, i would ask that we consider consideration gives gio local police. Thats all they have gotten and theyre at a tremendous disadvantage and they put themselves in a situation where theylllin end up being hurt an killed or rescuing down kids or people at the mall or theater or whatever. Having the equipment thatin we are able to get to the 1033 program, we have been able to get in the hot zonetr to be able to stop t shooting and agetting them the medical attention. Without the tool in our exceptions, we dont use in everyday. It is about leadership and accountabilities and aboutut usg the rightop tools at the right using it for a situation where we have seen in our recent past andd people ca site and say they are not intended for wethat. Theyey are intended to be able put our officers and deputies in a position between danger and the public andan to be able to hot zone extractions and to be able to get help and stop the threat as quickly as we can. Thank you, this is not a feel good exercise, we value our input. I know the commitment on our peopleat and our full commitmen to work towards these reforms to help you out. Thank you for what you do. Thank you, the chairman will recognize they gentleman in texas, miss jackson lee. I thank you the gentleman very much. I want to take note of the fact that sheriff, your member, congressman bass, is very active in full member of the commit tie. Is we thank you for your service to acknowledge congressman richmond whos present here todaytt on t subcommittee for ourso members. We arein delighted to have all and to take note of the fact that we are interested in working together. I want to start with mr. Canterbery, thank you for your leadership and continue to offer my sympathy. I interacted not only the citizens but officers on a regular basis and as i sometimes say not necessarily clothed in their b blues but clothed in thr underco cover clothing and seekg for probable cause warrants. We know the variety of work thats done, we thank you. I want to follow the route and all that line of questioning of my Ranking Members and k to say that we gotou to meet each othe halflf way. These are conspicuous cases in america no matter of what racial background they are. We are working on an integrity bill that i believe is a hand of friendship and includes the collection of data. Data iswi numbers, you cited th fbi report but what i vieww as sciencet helping us drive towars providing the fund that you are interested in. I was a great spoupport of the program. I want to makeic sure it is goi forward. Would you comment on very briefly because i want to get to the sheriff for him to further emphasize of some of the tactics that we use in houston and i want to thank mayor turner for emphasizing in terms of Community Outlook who we have engaged noin. Secretary kelly and i know that gotten this notice and workingrr with our joint terrorm indicated that we maybe one o f the most serious terrorist threats atmosphere since 9 11. An this falls to the local police of what kind of resources and what you deal with the question. Mr. Canterbery will you take hold o this question so i dont have to answer h it again. Me i am interested in your question of Mental Health. They need Mental Health help. Mr. Thompson, if you would like to jump in, please do. I would like to lead off of the difference of Walter Scotts case verses other cases is the city ofth charleston handled th entire investigation and if you look at the emanuel shooting church as well. We did not go to the streets and rise in South Carolina. Weng walked arm and arm on sing street and charleston demanded an end to the violence. It is the prework that happened there. On a national thlevel. We have been committed to data gathering and what we also like tole see though is a mandatory collectionon of Police Officerss well so that we can demonstrate the total number thats voluntarily reporting currently. Yes, well work with you in any increase the o amounttr of data, scientific da is a basis for our allocations and Police Strategies but on the other side, we want to collect data on the number of Police Officers that are being assaulted. I want to take you up on thas offer, thank you, chief. Thank you. Good morning again, we are focused on building relationshipssh and Building Trusts. Mayorth turner sets the tone an we all follow. We know the vast majority of the movement are our neighbors and friends and coworkers anden people just want to see good policing. What we are doing in houston is engaging in one another. We are painting them as what they trulype are and they are d labor and cook and people who are building our homes and road ways. We need toatch put down our bru and Start Talking to eep other and actual consider running away fromca activists, i run towards them. Because of that, we have built trust and we call each other and we need to havet like sherif mcdonald is saying, honest, open, blunt discussions but respectful. Thank you, on the issue of Mental Health. Co of that member of 4,000 to 5,000 are mentally ill. If youou look at the remainder them and the number of ptsd, the number would be at the range of 90 . We have been used to providing manyla of our folks are end custody because they u are acti out on a their Mental Illness a it is aat cycle of dysfunction that continues and they come into our custody and we try to stabilize them on. Medication ad being able to get them functioning and release from the system back out on the streets and many are homeless and they go back. We offend and find themselves back in d custody of where expensive cycle w of have inhume cycle of this function that we need to break. What we need is additional funding andnd focus on communit basedpe Mental Healthcare and treatment to be able to provide alternatives incarcerations for people who are better treated outside in a medical setting than a custody environment. Chief. I will briefly add that we have a lot of members coming back with ptsd that we have to deal with. We have citizens like my son who have autism and we are finding more and more situations where actions, although appears to be criminal in nature arere better served ify we are better to der or getting people the help they need. We are trying to identify resources within our community and resources to assist those that are having Mental Health issues. One last word of autism it is a growing epidemic. This is not a situation thats going to go away any time soon. We need to put image and effort in toti dealing with our fellow citizens. My little boy will be talking to me next year, hes only 12. As a Police Officer and having him as a young black male whos not going to understand some of the law andnd orders of police, think i am in a unique position to help both sides on this equation of how to respond and how to give parents assurance. We want to do all that we can do. Thank you, chief. If i can add onto the interactionog of the police as relates to autism and other cognitive disorderer if we can find ways to providing training, we train in our academy how to go in and take control of the situation thats very dynamic and chaotic. If we do that with somebody thats autistic, we are going to guarantee thats going to set them off and we are going to end up with potential use of force and a bad outcome. If people know what to look for based on training, they can look for cues in environment and come off in a different approach and get a different result and everybody benefits. Thank you,om sheriff. Can i acknowledge a person in the audience whos advocate of police interrelations. Mr. Generalon wolmack is here. We recognize the gentleman from texas. Thank you for being here. I am sure all four of you are here this week along witho ho thousands of peace officers and families of the slain officers to honor the fallen and not just from last year but the Previous Year as well. Texas last year we had 21 officersmo killed and numerous others wounded and more killed in the state of texas last year than any other states in the United States. Five of them were in the dallas area they were ambushedde by snipers followed by a demonstration was taken place in the city of dallas, ironically the officers were protecting demonstrators and the crowd and the sniper open fire took place in quiteed a long time. Officers killed and several others wounded and citizens killed and finally the sniper was talken out as he should have been Law Enforcement so as a member of this committee along with the others, we mourn the loss of those officers and plus over 130 that were killed throughout the nation. Thank you for being the head guy for all of those and for your department. Chief, i also want to talk about the justice of trafficking act thats been implemented and as you know the bill that passed over in the house and the senate and signed by the president goes after the traffickers and i call that person t, the slave master goes after the buyer whos the consumer and it goes after victims andme treating the vict as a victim of crime and not a criminal. City of houston recently had super bowl and the Police Department was in charge. Correct me if i am wrong, i believe the cityy of houston wa in charge of the entire process ofg trafficking and making sur that those out laws stayed out of our town during the super bowl. You work with federal state and other organizations and my question to you is specifically on the bill that goes after the buyer and consumer and the person who buys sex primarily with Young Children and for years that person seemsy to ge away with that kconduct in our criminal Justice System, can you give meti some success or not sk says of the law in taking, going after the buyers in the justice of victim and trafficking act of our city of houston. Fi thank you very much. The city of houston of the eppie center of humanet trafficking. It is nothing that we are proud of but it isel something that w are wcombatting. Number one on the war on drugs, you can focus on the people who are selling the dope or we can focus on treatment and going after the people that are buying the buying the drugs. We are tahankful of the fact an we are starting to focus on whats now is considered the consumer. The o leadership of mayor turne and theh Police Department, we are now treating the victims as theyey are. These women are victims. These boys and children and girls are victims and we are treating them as such. Treating them as suspects consequently as we are doing helping them identifying the bad guys that are take advantage of these folksks whether it is trafficker or the john. We are publishing the photos of these people putting them on notice first. There were interesting people thatul ended up in those pictur. We are grateful of that bill and we are hopeful the last thing isha a lot of these folks are traumatized when they are stopped by Law Enforcement with the traffickers, they are free to say anything so actually with training Police Officers on what theth indicators are and how to investigate on the side of the roadra has gone a long way. Thank you, chief. I thank the Mayors Office had a tremendousus adequate and direc protocol in dealing with trafficking. Last comment i want to make was to chief and mr. Canterbury, thank you for supporting the bill that i have introduced to backck the blue act which is punishes out law more to make crimeses against Police Officer throughout the country. With that, i will yield back. General from texas, i yield back. We recognize f the president fr louisiana, my friend, mr. Richmond. Let me thank of all of you being here. I want to start off with this andwo so we can answer quickly where i want to go. Would you agree that so many municipalities and local leaders and states and cities and countiess are so cash strapped that they are using Police Department as revenues of generators either to find or fees citations or traffic tickets or etcetera, do you think policy fosters or hammers police Community Relations. It hammers the fop brought it to the forefront and we should never be used to generate revenue. Sth you woulds agree of the strt code of no smiching erodes the safety of those communities and enhance Law Enforcement ability to identify and convict criminals that are terrorizing those same o communities. Absolutely. On the converse with the blue code which is been turned as Police Officers unwillingness reluctant to do the same to other Police Officers that the fact that it isis out there and peopleha talk about it erodes t communitys conference in their Police Officer departments. I believe that discussions erode it and i dont think the blue code exists to the extent that itn. Meant to be. I have seen officers turning to a blind eye to a policy violation, i have never seen anyone turning a blind eye to a criminal investigation. The other thing is and you mentioned i was glad that you said that you dont think real bi biassed but you think some officers coming in with their own personal explicit biassed. See others and the union will always come to the defense no matter how much evidence andls think that also erodes some community confidence. Let me ask you another question, youu talked about baton rouge which is my district and you did not mention st. John a couple years earlier and youou talked about officersho being gunned down. Re you mentioned home grown terrorism. What i have not heard today is the groups cyber citizens thats killed more Police Officers than anybodyi else. When we dont mention them, it gives the perception to the public that you have some out law, you know, urban kids or other people who are targeting police which is an unfair picture when we know who cyber citizens, who they are and we never talk about them and calling them by name. My Law Enforcement telliofficer medical they are more concerned of i think that it is not covered by the media by the by the way it should be. Law enforcementhi is extremely concern ed about this. There is a number of incidents. Baton rouge, the assailant professed to be a bo and . John perish, i am on homeland and judiciary and i am the only one talking about cyber citizens. That concerns me and if you can talk about it at least with my colleague, it would help me. It gets to my last point that you arere out gunned and they he betterca ammunition and high capacity th and they have betr bullets and b they may have betr bodyge armor. We talk about baton rouge specifically, those officers got out off those cars with handgun and he had a long gun that they probably invested in 5,000. That was nothing that could save them and not their helmet and shield or car door or his bullets would have went through everything. We have to have an honest conversation on what people on thehe streets canby and whether there is a need for. Officers are walking into a situation wherece it is iraq bu they are armed as acrossing guards and the bad a guys are armed as terrorists. We are not talking about taking peoples guns. We want the police to be on a fair footing with the criminals. Could you respond to that. I have seening a big shif shift our position have been better background checks and p Mental Health records bei available toou conduct those background checks would go along wayss of the Assault Rifle and e bill that white house sias sign clinton and the number did not conclude and the bill had any success of the guns thats sold orha the number of crimes committed. I think preventing people getting those weapons should not have them. Mr. Chairman could i just end with a comment. The handgun which will go through body arm and has no melt down policy, it cannot be self defense. It is sold everywhere. Do we have the need for that and antidotely,st i was a kid durin that time. I know the street value. So it made it a little bit harder for somebody to buy that gun andst hopefully calmer head available before they were able to purchase. Thank you all mr. Ul chairman an thank you for b letting me spea. Thank you, the chairman will now recognize the former u. S. Attorney mr. Ratliff. Thank you allan for being he today. I am sure over the course of this week, police week, you are going to receive a lot of kind words and praisesin and richly deserved and as u. S. Attorney under president bush, the opportunity to serve the top federal Law Enforcement, gave me thee opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with so manytr officers and Police Department across 33,000 square miles ond f that district and still of aproegs thpreciation td not have before of what your men and womenth asked to do today a sacrifices that they are asked to make and to my mind, every week should be police week in this country. Rather than just talking the talk as legislatures, we need to put words into action and we needed legislation that does mo than just say that we are grateful that proves it to you. We had a lot of great comments on this subcommittee today and for members of both sides of isle. Th two of you specifically mentioned, one specific piece of legislation that i introduced lastio congress and this congre which is the plus act. Actually taking back the that had been transferred to Law Enforcement agency under theav program throh the department ofor defense, i want to yield my time to you all. To have theyo opportunity to ta about it,we one of the things a we had a chance for many of us to talk before and mr. Cantebury working on this on this issue, i cannot tellap you how much i appreciate it. Chief, you m and i have talked about this issue a few months ago at an event. But, there is a narrative out there, false narrative in some folks minds that this is bona fide playing weekend warriors with our d pgs. There is a miss concepticonceptt the equipment involved is and what it means. Sheriff, you are right next dooe to the jurisdiction where the San Bernardino attack happened. I would like you to take a few minutes and talk about the fact thatik this is theoretical and this particular program, what it really means in terms of saving lives and not just officers but thef citizens they protect and would like to yield all of you to that respect. Thank you for that opportunity. We touched on that briefly and the 1033 programs have been valuable to state and local departments and the ability to be able and to be necessary to response tod those calls out o thee ordinary, when you need th equipment, you need the equipment to be able to put yourself in the vehicle between suspect and some down officers to be able to rescue, that second,ss sir, are life saving. If we are waiting for some entities thatsbl far away to b able to respond. This stuff as you see all the time onn tv, these active shooters on tvmi to be able to mobilize and get the equipment there andgr to be able to do wh itit needs to be done in a way thats safe as possible. The 1033 program have given us tools that otherwise we would notik have had. We learn and given a way to the federal f government to come an save youou that you will be waiting for ae while. The more that we can e requequip our local agency by nature or next multi shooter and over seas, the better off well be again. Our high water vehicles, in houston is very basically at sea level and when those range comes in. There isis no offensive capabily of 99 of the equipment that we areri talking about. It is equipment that helps us conduct our everyday mission, keeping america safe. Now, i would like to add for thoseto department thats scrapd financially and getting this equipment at a lower cost and trying to get some of the equipment from thebu private sector sector. It is available of resources. Well, i am not sure and there is another occupation out there. Where someone is expected to make correct and split seconds and sometimes life and death positions while navigating complicated laws and procedures in the process ofe laying his o her life only the line for tota strangers for little compensations and where every aspect of those actions draw public scrutiny and some cases criticisms from sectors o f the public or the court. Thats what your folks do everyday. I hopete there is a special pla in heaven for folks, again, i believe every week should be police week. Please communicate that with the men and women who work with you. I yield back. The chairou will recognize his friend from new york, mr. Jeffery. Thank you chairman for your leadership and yielding this distinguish panel here, today of your service of the country. The department i of justice und attorney general sessions is now calling for a review of Consent Decrees involving local Police Department and itt appears that they attempted to stop movement in that directionst as it relat to the baltimore Police Department which hadad a histor of problems highlighted by the freddie grays matter but a series of other issues as well. Now, i believe that you came to the city of houston and previously were in the city of austin, is that right . And now during the timeos at th austin pd, i think there were voluntary cooperation agreements between the Justice Civil Rights Division and the department in austin, is that right . Yes, we were investigated by justice. Tment of it lasted about four years of the entire process but rather than of the challenge of consent degree decree is a lot of money of what i described earlier. Folkses getting paid of having vested interest and never getting out of the Consent Decree. It will change outcomes and we are better off. Well have a meeting with the attorney general folks division for two weeks of the emergency chief to talk about this issue. Monitors, these monitors are sometimes getting one or two or three Million Dollars a year maybe is better forte for taxpayers. What are some of the for me it was a great tool to have in austin. They were validating what this chief that came from outside of the state of california was observing. We were not our systems are it would be a check and whereou i use my pr 24 on somebody. We would not have a sergeant come to the scene to assess the use of force and document the use of force. So we changed and we had 163 or soso recommendations and we implementedd 161 of them. It iswe a Great Partnership or great tool and wee hope that th collaborativers agreements woul be preferred method moving forward with the catch being the final step and quite frankly without the department of justice,e, a lot of cities and counties will not o invest in t training and equipment that Police Officers needpo to do a complex jobth unless theyre forc forc forc forced through these agreements. Soce engagement and involvement and presence that theet austin Police Department were able to improve the relationship between the policing community, is that right right . Yes, sir. I no la county has had some agreement with consensus decree, is that right . Thats right. We have one in the jail and one inof the Antelope Valley can you tell me about your experience with the department of justice and has it resulted in positive changes, resulting that improving the safety of the facility and kept it safer and potentially improving the relationship between the policing in thehe community . Some of those will affect organizational change and culture change and somef of the are check the box kind of thing which are not as helpful. Can you give me one example as my time expires of the type of thing that could affect organizational change in a positive direction . Absolutely , in looking at pattern and practice and allegations, we were able to drill down on that and measuring whats a occurring out there. Our greatest measure is Public Satisfaction and there was a recent article done by the la times where we were prior and where we are today and it was very complementary of the change within the organization as it relates to the community and reactions. We are proud of that within the custody environment and thats a different place today than it was a fewre years ago. We are proud of the progress we have been able to make there and our uses o f force and our significant used of force by deputies and inmates are down dramatically. When we look at the population of the jail that we have in california, they have changed dramatically and much more sophisticated andw violent criminals for much a longer periods of time. Thegn challenges are greater bu wely are managing them much betr thanan we were in past years. Thank you,u, sheriff. I wouldd hope that this communiy would considere and taking the position of the department of justicemm to proceed carefully accountability involvement anda working to establishingrk of th best relationship. Thank you, i yield back. Chairman, i recognize the chairman from michigan for introducing thats what i want to do of unanimous consent. The chairman will recognize the chairman from texas. Thank you mr. Chair. I appreciateor witnesses being here and leaving the jobs that you do andun serving people and your city and your country, i want to follow up on the Consent Decree issue and i guess we are all affected by our own personal experiences but based on my experience, i have been aro prosecutor and civil litigation and Getting Court appointments time tong time and also being a felony judge and chief justice, i have seene it from a lot of different ankles and it led me to believe that my friend and the Supreme Court he felt likece the Consent Decree is beg usedm to federalize local poli department. It certainlyan appears from whai seen personally when the departments were having to spend moneyy and time on the experts that reallyy do, they make a career out of being expensive and being in dispensable under Consent Decree that there are a lot of money wasted on people and not wasted but spent where it is productive on people manpower and equipment keeping them safe and it always seems to me havingpr watched a federal judge thereys in my own time taking control ofti these state prison systemsnc as though hes the legislature and executive and Traditional Branch all in one and the prison system in texas of 30 years that, that certainly seen unconstitutional that no one person should have that kind of authority for that period of time to run facilities and systems but again, that was decree that was agreed to basically given the federal government and one federal judge thatto kind of control but i haa Court Appointment who tells me after the federal judge took control of the texas prison systems, he had been in prison before and he had been in after and c there was not any differee after the federal judge took control. He was in much more danger and it was difficult to do time in prison. In any event, i would like to see, it seem lose i can if there is b a problem, it felt like the should be a lawsuit that it strikes butav the other side do not continue, it ends up if we have to come back, it is going to be more expensive again and then well leave it to the locals toed clean it up with thr knowledge that if they dont, the federal government will come back in and it will be more expensive and costly next time. I dont believe as houston been under a Consent Decree. I dont thinkk you have. I have only been there six months and i am fairly sure i am hoping thats something you areha looking forward to. Thats a lot of tick no police chief would like. Well, sheriff mcdonald, i get the impression thats not some place you want to be in either, right . Thats krcorrect. I want to ask you about something that comes up in the last ag years eight years is pen federaler prison the public given the impression that we have a lot of folks for simple possession and my experience was if there is nothing than simple possession, the defense left that too the state. The feds take a simple possession when somebody agree to a plea agreement to testify and in return they would only pursue the possession. For those who say drug crimes are victimea less crimes, i wou just like to finish buying each of your opinion on whether drug offenses ors victim less crime. I look at simple possession case in the state of california based on prop 47 as citation and not just once. It does not matter of the types of drugs. We are. In a different place thn many state. The drug market and the drug industry if you will driving crime, it is a organized crime and cartel are involved and of the lowest levels to the highest lefrl. To say it is a victim less crime. I think it is very wrong. When you look at whats happening with our opioid crisis, we are losing 91 people a day in this country to over doses primarily from opioids and you look at that and you see these are young kids of 18 to 25. Fentanyl have been introduced to the market thats extremely powerful. Luke you look at where thatsre take at the similar time we are moving awayic from the tool in using system to s deal with dru. I dont believeut those are the tools that should beo used andt is a Health Problem and should be dealt with as a Health Problem. Able to have leverage and giving people in treatments. We lostve that in california by having that leverage and using criminal justice n system, we he the ability to give people into treatment and getting their lives back on track and getting them in treatments and to be able to break that cycle of this function that we see too often. Well, i am the only one that has not answered their questions yet. If you can accommodate our judge whether of drugs or victim less crime. We try to defer what we can to get the type of assistance that theyhe need to stop that i order and most of the case that is handle that and at the county level or state level for us. Thank you. The vast majority of traffickers of the very involved of the narcotic side. Several prisons are full of nonviolent drug offenders. Thank you. Well, i dont have the data with me. We need to be smart on crime especially of the time that we have of limited resources. We need to distinguish of those between simple users as secretarynd kelly said, we needo give them treatments and not putting them in prison. We have to differentiate dealers that are out there. Treatments go a long way getting theus under lining problems. Thank you,a chief, thank yo mr. Chairman. Chairman, i yield back. I want toow thank all four of y for beingng here today and for your service to our country, i am going to confine my interactions with my own police chiefce and start by thanking y and your family who are with you today for your service of our community and other communities throughout your career. Weh are fortunate to have you spartanburg. I want to thank you r for helpi us, tim scott, helping us of policing community and t as you know it is confidential because we want people to tell the truth. Your voice is an important one that we benefited from. Your predecessor was really a good friend of mine, tony fisher, he also is a Law Enforcement officer of color without whom i never would have been elected just inreturning. So if folksks are looking for someone to blame for me being in public service, tony fisher, would be the person to blame. And tony and i would lament from time to timed of the notion of thee deeply ill notion within certain communities where victims of color were valued less. The sentences did not reflect values the lives of black victims the same as white vic m victi victims. It is interesting to have that conversation with a Law Enforcement officer of color who well knew that prosecutions are only as good as evidence are give. The first thingge that i think is howow do i get the communityo trust you and your officers enough to give us the information thatt we know that they have to present the evidence we know that they possess so we can value the lives of people of color exactly the same way as white victims. How do we do that . An easy t think it is fix, sir. Ase i mentioned earlier, it is what you do before crimes and situationsqu arise. There is no substitute for quality Professionals Services and respectable service in dealing with our citizens. But, breaking down these unfortunate historical traditional barriers between police, i will say that there is no snitch or not telling the police, giving us what we node to solve crimes is not as significant as we may think it is otherwise, well solve nothing. Information is definitely power. Oftentimes because of relationships built, we are getting that anonymous calls or someone isan giving us whats necessary to identify the responsible and a bringing themn justice. Us it is a tremendous frustration becauseue we value life and the community thats hurt have to value life too and stepping up to bringing whats necessary. There is one thing that i can just stress, you know, when we go to calls, we are not being invited over for teas or barbecues. We can get togethersly. During contentious times and break down thoseno barriers. We do t care about the communit for example, i try to lead by examples by beingng mentors or being on board, for example, i cherish thetr boys and girls cl. Theseth are kids are intimately involved. Ce needing to be successful of prosecution well, you and your officers are incredibly active in your community. I regret deeply that it takes a funeralom for some of your g and guys to know how appreciated they are. The community out pouring of support foral your agency was incredibly tragically beautiful to watch. Just hate that it took jason harris life and it does not have to do that. I hope your officers feel appreciated even on the days they come home safely, i will say this, when you are making your opening statement, i was sitting there writing a summary, payy is low, work is hard. Theou danger intense. Scrutiny is exacting. And the margin of error is zero. I dont know how in the hell you recruit anybody for that line of work. I just dont. So in a world clamoring for bipartisanship and apolitical causes, i hope you can take back to your agencies and entities that republicans and democrats, at least on this subcommittee, greatly value your work. And we are cognizant of the sacrifices that o not just you t your officers and families make. And if you would let them know that, and to Johnny Ratcliffes point, well try to communicate thatnd the other 51 weeks out o the year too and not just this one. With that, thank you for your service. Yes, maam. Let me first of all ask unanimous consent for statementr to be putth in the record, minei did the general, and a letter from the aclu. Without objection. To associate myself with the comments of the chairman as he concludes, there is you have aa blue line, its called the thin blue line, but there is no divide in the affection thator have for those on the front lines from all of us. And the questions weve asked i believe are both instructive and productive to ensure that we are both workingfo in commonality, respect, and dignity. We certainly offer our respect this week for those who have fallen. And we a commit ourselves to ma that zero as we work with our communities and our young people across the nation. And i thank you, mr. Chairman, for myielding. The gentlelady yields back. The otherer members will have fe legislative days with which to submit additional questions for the record or any other extraneous materials. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you for your service. [ indiscernible conversation ] [ indiscernible conversation ] join us this weekend for our cities tour to trenton, new jersey, with the help of our comcast partners, book tv, and American History tv, featuring the history and literary culture of new jerseys capital city. On saturday, 5 15 eastern on book tv, we visit the state librarys rare book collection. In 1728, a temporary Printing Press was set up in burlington, new jersey, in order to print paper money for the colony, and the legislature wanted it close so they could produce the precin printing of the money. Tell the they did that, they did this book. So this is the first known printed book within new jersey. And a conversation with william kidder, author of crossroads of the revolution trenton, 17741783. Washington spent more time in new jersey than any other state in the revolution, and his army spent a lot of time here. The important thing to him was to keep the revolution going and keep the army in the field. And i believe that new jersey in general and trenton in particular was very instrumental in helping accomplish that goal. And sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv, we tour the new jersey state Capital Building which houses one of the oldest legislatures in the country, and trenton, new jerseys impact on the Industrial Revolution with a look at some of americas iconic bridges. They are part of the very fabric of what makes trenton trenton. When you drive across the bridge and you see from the other side that sign that says, trenton makes, the world takes, thats evidence of that. Saturday at 5 15 p. M. Eastern on cspan2s book tv, and sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3, working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos is visiting washington today. Hes at the white house where hell give a joint statement with President Trump after a bilateral meeting in the west wing. Well have live coverage at 3 45 eastern on our companion network, cspan2. This morning the Senate Armed Services Committee Held a confirmation hearing for several Defense Department nominations. It ran about an hour