The Arizona House Rules Committee is scheduled to discuss legislation on Monday that would prevent cities from decreasing funding to their local police departments.
Rep. David Marshall, R-Snowflake, is the sponsor of House Bill 2120, and it has already passed the House Military Affairs & Public Safety committee in an 8-7 party-line vote this past Monday.
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As crime rates climb across the nation, police departments in several major U.S. cities are facing a crisis, namely, the inability to recruit new police officers. As a result, staffing shortages have led to increased overtime, thinly spread patrols, and a rise in crime rates.
Violent crimes remained higher during the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. The International Association of Chiefs of Police published a paper called “A Crisis for Law Enforcement” that shows 78% of law enforcement agencies have had “difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates” and that 65% reported having “too few candidates applying to be law enforcement officers.”
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On Wednesday, Joe Biden is prepared to sign several executive orders aimed at further punishing American police departments for alleged “systemic racism” and “brutality.”
The New York Post reports that the executive orders, meant to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the accidental fentanyl overdose death of George Floyd, will create a national registry of police officers who have been fired for misconduct, as well as further pressuring local governments to ban aggressive police tactics such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Another order will reduce the transfer of surplus military equipment to police departments.
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While Americans know that guns take many innocent lives every year, many don’t know that firearms also save them.
On May 15, an attacker at an apartment complex in Fort Smith, Ark., fatally shot a woman and then fired 93 rounds at other people before a man killed him with a bolt-action rifle. Police said he “likely saved a number of lives in the process.”
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Some police departments are having a hard time recruiting potential officers as others gear up for what could be another summer of civil unrest.
Demonstrations criticizing officer’s use of force and demanding general police reform last year hurt departments’ recruitment efforts leading to widespread strain, Axios reported Wednesday. Other departments in urban areas are preparing for what could be a summer of violent crime as COVID-19 restrictions ease, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Multiple police departments told the Daily Caller News Foundation that recruiting officers is not an issue, but budget constraints have limited their ability to increase manpower.
Almost a year after George Floyd died during an arrest where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes resulting in nationwide civil unrest and the defund the police movement, most police departments say they still have a sufficient number of candidates but lack the funding to recruit them.
“The Minneapolis Police Department, like every department, has seen a drop in application numbers over the last several years,” Minneapolis Police Department Spokesperson John Elder told the DCNF. “Whereas we have seen a reduction in applications, we still have ample qualified candidates who wish to be Minneapolis Police Officers and Cadets [and the department’s] recruitment efforts are ongoing.”
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