Funding For Public Safety

As crime is soaring in most major cities around the country, even proponents of the defund the police movement are realizing that this initiative is a complete failure and in the past few years has led to a major public safety concern. Marylanders are fortunate that in his final year in office, Governor Larry Hogan continues to make public safety a priority.

He recently proposed emergency legislation referred to as the Violent Firearms Offenders Act, aimed at stiffening penalties for those who choose to commit violent crimes with guns. At the same time, he proposed a second bill referred to as the Judicial Transparency Act, which would require the state commission on criminal sentencing to track and publish statistics relative to sentences for violent crimes handed down by Maryland judges. This is an important initiative that will enable the public to hold our judges accountable for the way they sentence (or fail to sentence) violent criminal offenders.

Governor Hogan has proposed an additional $500 million in further funding for the Refund the Police Initiative. This is vital at a time when underpaid and underappreciated police officers, who work under increasingly dangerous conditions every day, are choosing to retire early or leave the profession. The new funding will recognize the vital contributions made by police officers to protect our families, our businesses and our community. The new funding includes over $30 million for neighborhood safety grants designed to provide our most vulnerable neighborhoods with additional security and promote public safety through on-the-ground efforts such as community policing.

I have had the pleasure of getting to know many of our local police officers personally. They are upstanding community members who kiss their families goodbye each day in order to put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us. Politics should not divide us over such important issues. Now it is time for the state legislature to put partisan politics aside and support efforts to seriously curb crime in Maryland by investing more in public safety that will save the lives of our children and grandparents alike.