Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. I want to know if the flb will work with us. As you know were working on a trust and integrity bill that i believe is a hand of friendship. It also includes a collection of data, and that is numbers. Youve just cited the fbi report, but i view it as science that helps drive us toward providing the funding that youre interested in. I was on the beat program. I want to make sure its Going Forward and helping programs as much as possible. Would you comment briefly because i want to get to sheriff acevedo for him to further emphasize invest tactics weve used in houston and i want to thank mayor turner for emphasizing in terms of Community Outreach who youve engaged in and who you would answer the question just this past monday. Secretary kelly, and i know that you have gotten this notice and working with our joint terrorism indicated that we may be in one of the most serious terrorist threat atmosphere since 9 11. This falls to local police, what kind of resources and what you need dealing with that question. And i thank you, mr. Kanterberry. Im really interested in your comments about Mental Health to ask and answer the question are you saying that some of these people who come to you, theyre not criminals. They need Mental Health help, thank you. Mr. Chief thompson if you want to jump in, please do. Mr. Kanterberry. I think the walter scott case is the city of charleston handled the entire investigation and the prework that chief thompson was talking about in the city of charleston if you look after the Emmanuel Church shooting, as well. Im a proud south carolinian. We did not go to the streets in South Carolina we walked arm in arm on king street and charleston demanding the end to the violence and its the prework that happened there, but on a National Level weve always been committed to data gathering. What wed also like to see, though, is a mandatory collection of assault on Police Officers as well so that we can demonstrate the total number. Thats voluntary reporting currently, so yes, we will work with you in any way possible to increase the amount of data. Scientific data is a basis for asset allocation, policing strategies, but on the other side we also want to collect the data on the number of Police Officers that are being assaulted. I am going to take you up on that offer. Thank you, chief. Thank you. Good morning again. Were focusing on building relationships, building trust. Mayor turner sets the tone and we all follow including yourself and the Police Department. We dont paint people with broad brushes. Black lives matter will paint them with broad brushes when we know the vast majority in the movement are neighbors, friends and people who just want to see good policing and so what were doing in houston is engaging one another, building those bridges. When sb4 is trying to marginalize immigrants and paint them as thugs, rapists and drug dealers, were painting them as day laborers and cooks and nannies and people building our homes and our bridges and roadways. So i think that we need to put down our brushes and Start Talking to each other instead of yelling at each other and actually instead of running away from activists i run towards them and because of that we have built, i think, trust and we called each other on the carpet and have i think sheriff was saying. Honest, open, blunt discussions, but respectful. Sheriff. Thank you. Thank you, maecam. On the issue of Mental Health. Of that number 4,000 to 5,000 are seriously mentally ill. If you were to look at the remainder of them and you look at issues such as ptsd the number would probably be in the range of 90 . So we have a population thats very, very challenged that needs a different kind of care than traditionally weve been used to providing and many of our folks are in custody because theyre acting out on their Mental Illness and theres a cycle of dysfunction that continues. They come into our custody and we try to stabilize them on medication and be able to get them functioning and only to be released from the system back out on to the street and many are homeless and they go back to skid row or living under a bridge or a freeway, and then reoffend and find themselves back in custody, a very expensive cycle, a very inhumane cycle of this function that we need to break. What we need is additional funding and focus on communitybased Mental Health care and treatment to be able to provide alternatives to incarceration for people who can be better treated outside in a medical setting than in a custody environment. Chief . I would just briefly ad d that we have a lot of veterans coming back with ptsd that were having to deal with. We also have citizens like my son who has autism and were finding more and more situations where the actions, although they appear to be criminal in nature will be better served if we were to defer or get the people the type of help they need and we try to identify resources within our community and leverage the resources to a sft those that are having some of this Behavioral Health issues and one last word on autism. Its a growing epidemic. One in every 62 children born on the spectrum and board 148. So this is not a situation thats going to go away any time soon so we need to put effort into dealing with our fellow citizens as they grow older. Our little boy is only 12, but as a Police Officer and having him as a young black male who is not going to understand some of the orders of police i think im in a unique position to try to low pressure on both sides of this equation of how to respond and also how to give parents some assurance that well do all we can do. We really appreciate. Thank you, chief. If i could just to add on to the interaction of the police with the public as it relates to autism and other cognitive disorders. If we can find the way to be able to provide crisis intervention training to all of our Police Officers and deputy sheriff. Thats another tool in the tool box. We train in the Academy Command presence how to be authoritative and take control of the situation thats dynamic and chaotic. If we do that with someone who is autistic, we guarantee it will set them off based on their illness and it will have a bad outcome. If people know what to look for and cues in the environment and recognize symptoms and come off with a different approach, we get a different result and everybody benefits. Can i just acknowledge a person in the audience, mr. Chairman that has police and community relations. Mr. Womack is here from houston, texas, who has worked with the chief and came here to acknowledge National Police week. Thank you so very much. The chair will recognize the gentleman from texas, judge poe. Thank you all for being here. I assume all of you are here this week along with thousands of other peace officers and families of the slain officers to honor the fallen and not just from last year, but the previous years, as well. Chief acevedo, as you know, in texas last year we had 21 peace officers killed, numerous others wounded. More killed in the state of texas last year than any other state in the united states. Five of them were in the dallas area that were ambushed by a sniper while a demonstration was taking place in the city of houston or the city of dallas. Ironically, the officers were protecting the demonstrators and the crowd and then the sniper opens fire, took place over quite a long period of time. Five officers killed and several others wounded, citizens killed and finally the sniper was taken out as he should have been by Law Enforcement. So as a member of this committee along with the others, we mourn the loss of all of those officers plus the over 130 that were killed throughout the nation and thank you for being the head guy for your department. Chief acevedo, i want to talk a little bit about the justice of victims of trafficking act that has been implemented. As you know the bill that passed overwhelmingly in the house and the senate and signed by the president goes after the trafficker, and i call that person the slave master, goes after the buyer who is the consumer and then is helps the victim and treats the victim like a victim of crime and not a criminal. The city of houston recently had the super bubble and the city of Houston Police department was in charge and correct me if im wrong, but chief, i believe the city of houston was in charge of the entire process on trafficking and making sure that those outlaws stayed out of our town during the super bowl. You worked with federal, state, the nfl and other organizations. My question to you is specifically on the bill goes after the buyer and the consumer. The person who buys sex primarily with Young Children and for years that person seemed to always get away with that conduct in our criminal Justice System. Can you give me some success or not success of the law in going after the buyers for justice of victims of trafficking act in our city of houston . Good morning. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, the city of houston is actually the epicenter for Human Trafficking and sex trafficking. Its nothing were proud of, but its something that were com t combatting. Two things that err wwere doin very important. The war on drug, you can focus the people selling the dope or we can focus on treatment and going after the people buying it. In term of this scourge we do need and we are thankful of the fact that were starting to focus what we really need to be focusing on which is the consumer. In the city of houston with the District Attorneys Office and the leadership of kim and mayor turner and the Police Department we are now treating the victims as they are. These women are victim. These boy, these children, these girls are victims, and were treatinging them as such and consequently what were doing is theyre helping us identify the bad guys that are taking advantage of these folks whether its the travenlgfficker or the and were publishing the photos of these people and put them on notice first, publishing the photos. Thats something i would have done as a former judge in the city. There were people that ended up in those pictures and were very grateful for that bill and were hopeful that it will help us fight that. The last thing is a lot of these folks are so traumatized that when they are stopped by Law Enforcement with the pimp, with the trafficker theyre afraid to say anything, so actually training Police Officers on what the indicators are, how to investigate somebody on the side of the road has gone a long way and i would encourage our Police Departments across the country to be required to have training in that area. Thank you, chief. I think the Mayors Office has a tremendously adequate and excellent protocol on dealing with the issue of Human Trafficking. I hope more cities take it in the future and will make us not the hub of trafficking, but the answer to of course troising. The last comment i wanted to make was the chief or mr. Canterbury. I want to thank you for supporting the bill that i have introduced back to blue account which punishes outlaws more that commits crimes against Police Officers across the country and with that i yield back. The chair would recognize the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Richmond. Let me thank all of you for being here. Ill start with mr. Canterbury since you represent so many people and these are not gotcha questions and if we can answer them quickly it would help to get to where i want to go. Would you agree that so many municipalities and local leaders and states and cities and counties are so cash strapped that theyre using the Police Departments as a revenue generator from fines, fees, citations, traffic tickets, et cetera. Do you think that policy fosters or hampers communitypolice relations. It hampers communitypolice relations. In st. Louis there were 68 issuing tickets and the fop brought that to the forefront. We should never be used to generate revenue. Let me ask you another question. You would agree that the street code of no snitching erodes the safety of those communities and it hampers Law Enforcements ability to identify and convict criminals that are terrorizing those same communities . Absolutely. And on the converse with the blue code which has been termed in terms of Police Officers unwillingness or reluctance to do the same to other Police Officers that the fact that its out there and people talk about it erodes the communitys confidence in their Police Departments . I believe that that that the discussion of it erodes it. I personally dont think that the blue code exists to the extent that its meant to be. I have seen officers that might turn a blind eye to a policy vileation and ive never seen anybody turn a blind eye to a voolation. The other thing is and you mentioned and i was glad to hear you say that you dont think, you know the real bias is what you think some officers comes in with their own personal implicit bias and to the extent that chiefs and others have the ability to root that out and most often i see it least in Civil Service or others that the union will always come to the defense no matter how much evidence, and i think that that also erodes some community confidence, but let me ask you another question because you mentioned 18 officers and this year you talked about baton rouge in our district and you did mention st. John a couple of years ago in my district and you talked about officers being gunned down which is what i was concerneded about and you mentioned homegrown terrorism. What i have not heard here today is the Group Sovereign citizen who has killed more Police Officers than anybody else so when we dont mention them i think it gives the perception to the public that you have some outlaw urban kids or other people targeting police which is an unfair depiction when we know who sovereign citizen, who they are, and we never, ever talk about them or call them by name and my Law Enforcement officers tell me theyre more concerned about stopping a car thats a sovereign citizen than any other thing on the job. Would you agree on that . I think sovereign citizen is a scourge in this country and its not covered by the media, and Law Enforcement is extremely concerned about sovereign citizens. There were a number of incidents, baton rouge and the assailant professed to be a sovereign citizen and st. John parish where we lost deputies and both in my district were sovereign citizens and im in homeland and im the only one who talks about sovereign citizen and that concerns me. I think if we can talk about it with my colleagues it will help us because it will get to my last point which is, you all are outgunned. They have better ammunition. They have higher capacity cartridges. They have better bullets that go through the body armor that you have and they have better body armor. So if we talk about baton rouge, specifically, those officers got out of those cars with handguns and he had a long gun with a vest on and a vest that he invested 5,000 in, was there nothing that could save them. Not their helmet and their shield and their car door. His bullet would have went through anything. So we have to have an honest conversation about what people on the streets can buy and whether there is a need for it because our officers are walking into situations where its iraq except theyre armed as a crossing guard and the bad guys are armed as terrorists, and so if you could help us and were not talking about taking peoples guns. We just want the police to be on a fair footing with the criminals. Could you respond to that . Mr. Richmond, in the last ten or 15 years ive seen a shift on the Second Amendment and our position has been that better background checks, Mental Health records being available to conduct those background checks would go a long way. The Assault Rifle bill that was signed in by president clinton. The numbers did not prove at the conclusion that that bill had any success in reducing the number of guns that were sold or number of guns committed. So i think preventing those people preventing the guns can i make a comment . Sure. The handgun which will go through body armor has no knockdown power so it cant be selfdefense. It is sold in cabelas and everywhere else, it is sold as a killing gun. So the question is do we have the need for that and just anecdotally on the weapons ban. I was a kid during those time and i dont know what the data shows, but i know the street cost of an ak47 at the time went from 400 to 500 in the streets to 1500 so it made it harder for someone to buy that gun and hopefully calmer heads prevail before they were able to purchase it. Thats just my life experience, but thank you for letting me go. Thank you, gentleman from louisiana. The chair will recognize the gentleman from texas. Mr. Ratcliffe . Thank you. Over the course of this week, police week youre going to receive a lot of kind words and praise and it is certainly richly deserved. As u. S. Attorney under president bush the opportunity to service the top federal Law Enforcement official in the Eastern District of texas gave me the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with so many officers and Police Departments across the 33,000 square miles of that district and really instilled in me an appreciation that i didnt have before about what your men and women are asked to do every day, the sacrifices that theyre asked to make and the circumstances under which theyre asked to make them, and to my mind, every week should be police week in this country. With you rather than just talking the talk as legislators we need to put words into action. We need legislation that does more than just say that were grateful that proves that to you. Weve had a lot of great comments even on this sub commit today from members on both sides of the aisle. Two of you specifically mentioned one specific piece of legislation that i introduced last congress and again, this congress which is the plus act, protecting lives using surplus equipment. And it was necessary when the Prior Administration decided to restrict the 1033 program and actually take back some of the equipment that had been transferred to Law Enforcement agencies under the program through the department of defense. I want to yield my time to you all. Youve had some opportunity to talk about it, but one of the things and wooe he had a cha many of us, to talk with you folks on this particular issue. I cant tell you how much we appreciate it and how much we look forward to continuing to engage. Chief acevedo, you and i had talked about this issue a few months ago at an event, but there is a narrative out there, a false narrative in some folks mind that this is barney fife playing weekend warriors with o p. Gs and there is a misconception about what it means and sheriff mcdonald, youre next to the jurisdiction where the San Bernardino attack happened. So i would really like you to take a few minutes and talk about the fact that this isnt theoretical and that this this particular program what it means in terms of saving lives not just of officers, but of the citizens that they protect and i would like to yield to all of you in that respect. Thank you. Thank you for that opportunity. We touched on that briefly. The 1033 program has been very valuable to state and local departments to be able to have the tools necessary to respond to those calls that are certainly out of the ordinary, but when you need the equipment you need the equipment to be able to put yourself in an Armored Vehicle between the suspect and some down citizens, some downed officers to be able to affect the rescue. Our second serve is life saving and to be get in without waiting and to have the tools that are necessary, and if were far away and to be able to respond and as you see all of the time on tv, these active shooter situations are in seconds or minutes and to be able to mobilize, get the equipment there and do what needs to be done in a way thats as safe as possible. The 1033 program has given us tools that otherwise we wouldnt have had. And id like to add from houston, without this equipment we learned in katrina that youll wait for the federal government to come and save you youll wait for a while. So the more that we can equip our local agencies to be prepared for all threats whether its by nature or the next multishoot are incident that you might have from homegrown extremist to sovereign citizen or overseas radicalized person the better off well be. Again, our highwater vehicles, houston is basically at sea level and when those rains come in we deploy those vehicles and some people think about iraq, but there is no offensive capability with 99 of the equipment that were talking about. Its all equipment that helps us just conduct our Everyday Mission of keeping americans safe. And i would just like to add for those departments that are kind of strapped financially, being able to get this equipment at a lower cost is advantageous to us because we tried to get some of the equipment from the private sector is extremely costly, and its cost prohibitive for us, so it is available to the resources. Well, im not sure that there is another occupation out there where someone is expected to make correct, splitsecond, sometimes life and death decisions while navigating complicated laws and procedures, in the process laying his or her life on the line for total strangers for relatively little compensation and where every aspect of those actions draws public scrutiny and in some cases criticism from the sectors of the public or the courts. Thats what your folks do every day. I hope that there is a special place in heaven for folks like that, and i think every week should be police week. I appreciate you all being here today. Please communicate that to the brave men and women that work with you and ill yield back. The gentleman from texas yields back. The chair recognizes mr. Jefferies. Thanks, chairman, for your leadership and the distinguished panel for your presence here. Today your service to this country, if i can start with chief acevedo. The department of justice under attorney general sessions is now calling for a review of Consent Decrees involving local Police Departments and it appears that theyve attempted to stop movement in that direction as it relates to the baltimore Police Department which has had a history of problems highlighted by t by the freddy gray matter, and a series of other issues, as well. I believe you came to the city of houston and previously were in the city of austin, is that right . And during your time with the austin pd i think there was a cooperative with the city of austin, is that right . Yes, sir. We were investigated by the department of justice. It lasted about four years, the entire process, but rather than entering into a Consent Decrees. The problem is a lot of money goes into the Cottage Industry of these folks that get paid to and have a vested interest in never getting out of a Consent Decree. For example, in chicago its cost 6 million in litigation. If we can use Consent Decrees as the last step for cities and counties that dont want to be helped by the department of justice and spend those precious dollars on training, equipment and the things that really will change outcomes, were better off. Were actually going to have a meeting with the attorney generals folks and the division in two weeks. To talk about this issue. We dont want them to abandon them, but we think the cooperative agreements with teeth in them without these monitors and these monitors that are sometimes getting 1 million, 2 million, 3 million a year. What were the policies made as a result of the agreement . Oh, lord, for me it was great to have the department of justice as a new chief in austin because quite frankly they were validating what the new chief from the state of california was observing that we were not our systems, our processes, our policies were so outdated. Use of force, if i used my pr24 which is my baton on somebody we wouldnt have a sergeant come to the scene at the time to assess what was the use of force, to document the use of force. So we had 163 or so recommendations and we implemented 161 of them. So its a great partnership, a great tool and we hope that collaborative agreements would be the preferred method moving forward can the Consent Decree being the final step and quite frankly, without the department of justice a lot of cities and counties simply will not invest in the training and equipment that Police Officers need to do a very complex job unless theyre forced through these agreements in terms of the department of justice. So say that as a result of the department of justices engagement, involvement, presence that the austin Police Department was able to modernize itself and significantly improve the relationship between the police and community, is that right . Yes, sir. Now i know sheriff mcdonald, i think the l. A. County also has experience with the Consent Decree, is that right . Thats correct. And the Consent Decree came about as a result of allegations, accusations of excessive use of force directed in particular at communities of color, is that right . Thats one of them. We have one in the jails and one in the antelope valley. Can you tell me about your experience with the department of justice and has it resulteded in positive changes that resulted in improved safety if facilities kept officers safer and potentially improved the relationship between the police and the community . We also have Prior Experience with lapd with longterm Consent Decree, as well and to echo the comments it is a vehicle for change, for positive change. It needs to be managed in a way from a macro sense so that it does what its intended to do, that the things that are being counted are things that matter and change. A lot of times youll have a Consent Decree with a number of different recommendations for change. The completion of the Consent Decree is contingent upon, some of those will affect organizational change and more of them are more check the box kind of things that are not as helpful. Can you give me one example as time expires, of the type of thing that can affect organizational change . Absolutely. In practice in the antelope valley, racial profiling allegation, we were able to drill down on that. Were measuring what is occurring out there. I think our greatest measure is public sae public satisfaction. There was a recent article done by the l. A. Times where we were prior and where we are today and it was complimentary as it relates to police interaction. Were very proud of that. With the custody environment. Thats a different place today than it was a few years ago and were very proud of the progress weve been able to make there. Our uses of force, significant uses of force by deputies on inmates is down dramatically and when we look at the population of the jails that we have in california they have changed much more drama of theically and a much more sophisticated and much more violent criminal in for a longer amount of time. The challenges are greater, but were managing better than we were in past years. Thank you. I hope the committee will take into position that the department of justice would proceed carefully with the effort to eradicate accountability and involvement and work gentleman from new york yields back. The chair will recognize the gentleman from michigan for introducing his Opening Statement. Thats what i want to do and ask unanimous consent. Without objection. Thank you. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from texas, judge gomert. I appreciate the witnesses being here today and i appreciate more the jobs that you do and serving people and your cities and the country. I want to follow up on the Consent Decree issue, and i guess were all affected by our own personal experiences, but based on my experiences having been a prosecutor and then doing mainly civil litigation, but Getting Court appointments time to time and also being a felony judge and chief justice, ive scene it from a lot of different angles and it led me to believe that my friend and hes a brilliant intellect in the Supreme Court hes just a smart guy, mark levin said he felt the Consent Decrees were being used to federalize local Police Departments and it certainly appeared from what id seen personally that when the departments were having to spend money and time on the experts, they really do, they make a career out of being expensive and being indispensable under Consent Decrees that theres a lot of money wasted on those people that should be wasted not wasted, but actually spent where its more productive on people, manpower and equipment to keep them safe and it always seemed to me, having watched a federal judge take control of the state prison system as though he was the legislature, executive and Judicial Branch all in one as he managed prison systems in texas for, i dont know, over 30 years, i think, that that certainly seemed unconstitutional, that no one person should have that kind ofof authority for that period of time to run facilities and systems, but again, that was under a decree that was agreeded to, basically giving the government one federal judge that kind of control. But i had a Court Appointment who told me that after the federal judge took control of the texas prison systems, he had been in prison before, and hed been in after and there was a night and day difference after the federal judge took control, he was in much more danger and it was much more difficult to do time in prison but in any event, i would like to see, it seems like if there was a problem there seems that there should be a lawsuit, but the oversight doesnt continue. It just ends up, if we have to come back, it will be more expensive again and then leave it to the locals to clean it up with their 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 has houston been under Consent Decree . I dont believe you have. Not that im aware of. Ive only been there six months. I hope thats not something you were looking forward to. Thats a lotto ticket no police chief would like to win. Well, sheriff mcdonald, i get the impression thats not some place you wanted to be either, right . Thats correct. Okay. Well, i also wanted to ask you about something that constantly has come up over the last eight years. This emphasis on people in federal prison for simple possession and the public was given the impression that we had lot of folks in federal prison for simple possession and my experience was that if it was nothing, but simple possession the feds left that to the state for prosecution, about the only time we hardly ever saw the feds take a simple position was when someone would agree to a plea agreement to testify and in return they would only pursue the possession. For those who say that drug crimes are victimless crimes, i would just like to finish by hearing each of your opinions on whether or not simple drug offenses are victimless crimes . Sheriff mcdonald . I look at simple possession cases in the state of california based on prop 47 are now a citation, not just once, but every time youre caught and it doesnt matter the type of drug. So were probably in a different place than many states, but the drug market, the drug industry, if you will, drives crime. It is organized crime. The cartels are involved. There is Violence Associated with it from the lowest levels to the highest levels. So to say that its a victimless crime i think is very wrong. When you look at whats happening today across america with our opioid crisises and you see were losing 91 people a day in this country to overdoses primarily from opioids, and you look at that and see these are primarily young kids, 18 to 25, and fentanyl has now been introduced to the market which is extremely powerful, deadly in some cases with carfentanil, in particular. At the same time were moving away from using the tools of the Justice System to be able to deal with drug, and i dont believe that those are the tools that should be used solely. It is a Health Problem that needs to be dealt with as a Health Problem and we need leverage to be able to get people into treatment and weve lost this that in california. By having the leverage and using the criminal Justice System we have the ability to get people into treatment and hopefully get their lives back on track. Without that leverage, people dont have that ability based on their addiction to get into treatment and to break the cycle of dysfunction that we see too often. Ill ask the chairmans indulgence if i could have all three answer that question . Im the only one that hasnt asked questions yet, and i was trying to get done by noon and if you can accommodate judge gomert whether drugs are a victimless crime im happy to wait longer. Chief thompson . Not a victimless crime, but we try especially for first offenders try to defer to court to get the type of assistance that they need to stop the dependency, and in most of the cases theyre at the city and county level for state statutes and were not filling the federal penitentiary for simple possession. The vast majority of traffickers in the sector are very, very involved in the violent side of narcotics. Its a misnomer that the federal prison is full of nonviolent drug offenders. Thank you. Chief . Well, i dont have the data with me, but i think we need to be smart on crime especially in a time when we have the limited resources. So we need to distinguish between those that are simple users. We need to get those people treatment and not putting this emin prison. We were charging people with felonies for having three bindels of cocaine for personal use. We have dealers out there poisoning our streets with people that are just addicted and treatment goes a long way and getting rid of the underlying problem. The chair will now recognize themselves and i want to thank you all for being here today and for your service to our country. I will confine my interactions with my own police chief and start by thanking you and your family who is with you today for your service to our community and other communities throughout your distinguished career. We are fortunate to have you in spartanburg, and tim scott and i want to thank you for helping us with our policecommunity relations roundtables. As you know theyre confidential because we want people to tell the truth and your voice is an important one that we have benefited from. Your predecessor was a really good friend of mine, tony fisher, he also is a Law Enforcement officer of color without whom i never would have been elected district attorney. So if folks 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 time the notion, the deeply held notion within certain communities that am haves of color were valued less than white victims. In homicide cases in particular that the sentences didnt reflect valuing the lives of black victims the same as white victims and its interesting to have that conversation with a Law Enforcement officer of color who well knew prosecutions are only as good as the evidence that were given. So when you Say Community relations the first thing i think of is how do we get the community to trust you and your officers enough to give us the information we know that they have to present the evidence we know that they possess so we can value the lives of people of color in exactly the same way we do as white victims . How do we do that . I dont think its an easy fix, sir, but as i mentioned earlier its what you do before crimes and situations arise. You know, theres no substitute for quality, professional service and Respectful Service in dealing with our citizens in our area of our city, but breaking down these unfortunately, historical barriers between the police and the community. I will say that snno snitching d not telling the police about the crimes is as significant as we may think it is because otherwise we would solve nothing. Information is definitely power. Were not given information at the scene and often times because of Relationships Build well get the anonymous call or someone giving us whats necessary to identify someones responsible and bring them to justice, but unlike you and director fisher there is a tremendous frustration because we value life, but the community thats being hurt has to value life, too and step up and do whats necessary to bring people thats responsin fble for causi the pain and the hardship. There are relationships, if there is one thing that i request just stress. When we go to calls were not being invited over for tea or a barbecue, obviously, but if we can get together through noncontentious times and break down those barriers and see where we have a singleness and purpose and we do care about the community. I try to lead by example by being mentors or being on boards. For example, i chair the boys and girls club in South Carolina. I am with the white pines kids and these are kids that have run a foul of the law and when people see that youre sincere in yo in your efforts to assist, i think that start us on our way of getting the type of information that youre wanting and were needing with perpetrators of crime. You and your officers incredibly active in our community and i regret deeply that it takes a funeral for some of your guys and gals to know how appreciated they are and the community outpouring and support for your agency was incredibly tragically beautiful to watch. I just hate that it took jason harris life, and it doesnt have to do that. I hope your officers feel appreciated even on the days they come home safely. So ill say this, when you were making your Opening Statement i was sitting there writing a summary. The pay is low, the work is hard, the danger is intense, the scrutiny is exacting and the margin for 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 all of your agencies and entities that republicans and democrats at least on this subcommittee greatly value your work and were cognizant of your sack sacrifices that not just you and your families make and to Johnny Ratcliffes point well communicate the other 50 weeks out of the year, too, and not just this one. With that, thank you for your service. Chairman . Yes, maam. Let me first of all ask unanimous concept to be put in record, and a letter dated from the aclu dated may 17th. Without objection. And then just to associate myself with the comments of the chairman as he concludes is that there is you have a blue line and the legislation called a thin blue line, but there is no divide in the affection that we have for those on the front line for all of us and the questions that weve asked, i believe are both instructive and productive for us ensuring that we are both working in commonality and respect and dignity and we certainly offer our respect this week for those who have fallen and we commit ourselves to make that zero as we work with our communities and our young people across the nation, and i thank you, mr. Chairman, for yielding back. The gentle lady yields back. The other member will have five legislative days with which to submit additional questions for the record or other extraneous materials. We that, we are adjourned. Thank you for your service. Later today on cspan 3, canadas National Defense minister talks about his countrys support policy and nato and defending Canadas Arctic territory and fund ing for the troops and equipment, and hosted by the wilson center, it is live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight on the communicators, Harold Mcsweeney of the federal trade commission talks about malware scyber attack and internet security, and ms. Mcsweeney is interviewed by david mckay. What would you say the greatest challenges are with the policing of this whole new landscape of devices . One of the challenges is always going to be thinking of now ways in which technology is being used to surveillance or monitor or gather very intimate inf infor may about each other, and as they are more sintimate with the bedroom and the body and the childrens bedrooms and giving out information about it, it is more important to protect that kind of conscent so that people are aware of what is happening with the information. Watch the communicators tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan 2 2. Transportation secretary elaine ciao gave the first communication before congress to talk about the nations
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