[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          National Police Week

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this week is National Police Week, which is 
a time set aside to honor the service of our Nation's law enforcement 
officers, to show appreciation for the sacrifices they make to keep our 
communities safe, and to pay tribute to those who have made the 
ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.
  Being a police officer is no easy task. An ordinary day for the men 
and women in blue takes extraordinary character. It takes courage to 
run toward danger, to take on the unknown. But if you ask a police 
officer, he or she will usually say: It's just part of the job.
  That job is a vital one.
  I am profoundly grateful to the brave Americans who step up to 
protect and serve in my State of South Dakota, in Washington, DC, where 
the U.S. Capitol Police work to keep us, our staff, and our 
constituents safe, and around the country.
  There is no denying that law enforcement is a dangerous job. Police 
officers face threats and confront suffering on a daily basis, and many 
officers bear the visible and invisible wounds of their job. Some 
officers make the ultimate sacrifice--laying down their lives to 
protect their fellow citizens.
  This year's National Police Week resolution honors the memory of the 
443 law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty last 
year as well as the 32 lost to date this year. And my thoughts and 
prayers go out to their families and to their fellow officers.
  Being a police officer has never been easy. Over the last few years, 
however, steady criticism and vilification and the enduring ``defund 
the police'' movement have made the job a lot harder and taken a 
noticeable toll on morale.
  Police retirements and resignations are up around the country, and 
there aren't enough applicants to fill available openings. The police 
department in Asheville, NC, is down 40 percent of its budgeted 
positions. Cleveland, OH, has its smallest police academy class in 25 
years--just nine recruits. And here in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan 
Police Department has fewer officers than at any time in the last 25 
years.
  Meanwhile, crime continues to surge around the country. Here in DC, 
violent crime is up 13 percent from the same time last year, and 
property crime is up 30 percent over the same period. In Philadelphia, 
retail and auto theft are surging. As one article recently noted, small 
business owners are hoping the next mayor will make public safety a top 
priority. Meanwhile, in Chicago, crime is up 42 percent compared to the 
same time last year, driven, in part, by a staggering 131-percent 
increase in motor vehicle theft. And the list goes on.
  Surging crime is almost unquestionably being aggravated by the rise 
of big city prosecutors who seem uninterested in actually prosecuting 
crimes. Philadelphia's district attorney, for example, actually 
campaigned on a platform of prosecuting fewer crimes. And then there is 
the U.S. attorney for Washington, DC, who declined to prosecute two-
thirds of arrests last year--two-thirds. DC police data say the average 
homicide suspect has been arrested 11 times before he or she commits a 
murder--11 times. Think about that.
  Congress has the legal authority to block DC ordinances thanks to 
Federal legislation rooted in the Constitution which gives Congress 
legislative jurisdiction over the seat of the U.S. Government. When, in 
the face of a crime surge, the DC City Council passed a law weakening 
penalties for a number of crimes, Congress intervened and successfully 
blocked the bill. And, yesterday, the Senate successfully passed 
Senator Vance's legislation to block another DC City Council measure--a 
measure that would make it more difficult for police officers to do 
their jobs and could lead to the targeting of individual officers.
  Between soft-on-crime policies and prosecutors and antipolice 
rhetoric--too often amplified or accommodated by members of the 
Democratic Party--it has been a difficult few years for police 
officers.
  The Biden administration has presented yet another challenge for law 
enforcement--the crisis at our southern border that has raged for the 
past 2 years thanks to the President's refusal to take border security 
seriously. There have been a staggering 5 million attempted illegal 
crossings of our southern border during the Biden administration, an 
average of 6,300-some individuals per day, and that doesn't even count 
the so-called got-aways, who are individuals the Border Patrol saw but 
was unable to apprehend. And those numbers got even worse last week as 
the Biden administration prepared to lift pandemic-era title 42 
authorities, which allowed the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to 
quickly turn back at least some individuals at the border.
  Our Border Patrol agents and our Nation's border communities are 
overwhelmed. Border Patrol agents in San Diego, last week, arrested an 
Afghan national on the FBI's terror watch list, underscoring that the 
immigration crisis directly affects our national security and public 
safety.
  Cross-border illegal activity is making life difficult for law 
enforcement agencies around the country. I have talked to sheriffs in 
South Dakota--about as far from our southern border as you can get--who 
are dealing with fentanyl that has been trafficked across the border 
from Mexico.
  Last year, Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead estimated that 90 
percent of fentanyl and meth in our State comes through Mexico, and 
that trafficking is undoubtedly being facilitated by the chaos at our 
southern border.
  Despite the many challenges they face, particularly over the past few 
years, law enforcement officials and officers continue working around 
the clock to keep our communities and our country safe.
  This week and every week, we need to honor their service and remember 
their sacrifices. And this week and every week, we need to do the work 
of ensuring that our laws and policies support our Nation's law 
enforcement officers and their jobs, that our men and women in blue 
have the tools and resources they need to enforce the law, and that 
misguided policies don't endanger our officers and stand in the way of 
public safety.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The Senator from North Carolina.