GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good morning, everybody. I’ll tell ya, looking out here this morning in Ocean City, such a beautiful sight to see, all the men and women in blue. A beautiful sight.
Thank you, Sheriff Berry and Chief Nesky. Congratulations. We have a lot of awards and I’ll be here for that. I want to congratulate all of the award recipients for all of their accomplishments.
It really is an honor for me to be here joining all of you for this 12th conference of the Maryland chiefs of police association and the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association, two very important organizations that represent and promote the interests of some of our state’s true heroes. I consider it a privilege to be able to be back here once again with all of you, among such outstanding leaders of Maryland’s law enforcement community.
Every single day that I have served as Governor, I have been immensely proud of our state law enforcement officers. Our county police officers. Our sheriff’s deputies. All of the men and women that you lead, in all of your communities all across the state. Our state and our nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of you and to all of the proud brave members of the thin blue line. You face danger rather than run away from it. Every single day we rely on your dedication, your elite training, and your consistent preparation, which is why for 7 years now on my administration, I have strongly supported the entire law enforcement community, public safety initiatives to enable you to do your jobs more effectively. We’ve provided more than $513 million to your local departments and private enforcement efforts, for your individual communities. We’ve worked with you to enact tax cuts for the Hometown HEROES Act for our retired law enforcement officers, firefighters, and first responders. We created a new Maryland criminal intelligence network, collaborating with you in order to assist police and prosecutors in going after and taking down people who are responsible for so much violence. And I vetoed a number of misguided reactionary bills passed by the legislature earlier this year which would further erode police morale, community relationships, and public comments, and do great damage to retention and recruitment efforts. I don’t have to tell any of the chiefs and sheriffs here today that this is an especially important time for everyone in law enforcement. In our state, in our nation.
Sadly, the unconscionable actions of a few have been used to question the character of and to demean all law enforcement officers, and to fuel what I would call an all-out assault on the entire law enforcement community.
Last year when the defund the police movement started gaining momentum, I was one of the first leaders in Maryland to stand up and speak out loudly against it and to completely reject the idea. I want to reiterate here again today what I’ve been saying for more than a year: Trying to reduce crime by defunding police is a dangerous, radical, far left idea. We just had last week a city councilman in Baltimore City call for completely abolishing Baltimore City Police Department. Thinking you can improve law enforcement by defunding police is like saying you can improve education by defunding the schools. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. Homicides are surging across the country. There are violent crime waves in nearly every major city. Law enforcement agencies nationwide, including many of the departments that you all lead, are struggling to attract qualified candidates. And many current officers are retiring early or choosing to walk away. There could not possibly a worse time for anyone to call for defunding the police, defunding public safety. The fact is, our police are underfunded and under attack. To reverse the tide of rising crime, the first thing we have to do is stop sabotaging and demonizing the dedicated men and women who work for you and who put their lives on the line every single day for the rest of us. Enough is enough. We cannot defund the police. We need to refund the police.
[Applause]
Instead of less funding, we need more investment to recruit and retain quality officers, so that we can increase diversity, so that we can expand community policing efforts, so that we can teach better de-escalation techniques and improve training, so that we can provide body cams and other technology and equipment. We need to increase funding for law enforcement in order to improve policing, build more trust in the community, and most importantly, so that we can make our neighborhoods safe. Reducing resources, reducing police officers, reducing training is not the answer. I will tell you that the state of Maryland will not be defunding the police under my watch.
[Applause]
On Friday I had an announcement where we talked about instead of defunding police, we’re going to refund the police. It was the first in a series of announcements regarding our initiatives. Beginning with, as I announced on Friday, an additional $150 million of increased support for our police and increased crime control and victim protection efforts all across the state. Our refund the police effort includes an additional $45 million, a 50 percent increase, in aid to all of you, our local jurisdictions all across the state.
[Applause]
With vacancies rising and recruitment waning, we will be providing $50 million to fund hiring bonuses and salary increases to ensure adequate compensation for all of our state policing agencies. And our initiative also includes $24 million for body cams, de-escalation training for both state and local law enforcement agencies. I know some of you have been pushing for it for a while, and I’m happy to announce that we’re also putting in an additional $1 million directly into your two organizations, the Maryland chiefs of police association and the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association to help you further expand your operational training and support.
[Applause]
Our $150 million refund the police initiative will provide desperately needed investment in our state and local police agencies. But that’s just the start. There’s a lot more work to be done. In addition to investing more in law enforcement, we also need to get the legislature to finally agree to pass laws that hold violent criminals accountable. We’ve been pushing this for years. Twice we’ve passed it in the Senate but the members of the House continue to allow no accountability for violent crime. We need prosecutors who will actually prosecute criminals. And we need judges who are more accountable for sentencing for violent felons and repeat offenders. In the coming weeks I will be announcing additional proposals including multiple pieces of legislation to support all of these crime fighting initiatives. We’re going to need your support and your help to get that done.
In closing, I just want to take a moment to very sincerely thank each and every one of you for choosing to serve and protect the people of our great state. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for your service. I want to let each of you know, especially in today’s environment, far too often our law enforcement officers are unfairly criticized and don’t get the recognition that they deserve. You will continue to have the full support of your Governor. I will continue to have your back and continue to proudly stand with each and every one of you.
May God bless and protect our law enforcement officers and all the great leaders here today. May God continue to bless the great state of Maryland. Thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you, Sheriff Berry and Chief Nesky. Congratulations. We have a lot of awards and I’ll be here for that. I want to congratulate all of the award recipients for all of their accomplishments.
It really is an honor for me to be here joining all of you for this 12th conference of the Maryland chiefs of police association and the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association, two very important organizations that represent and promote the interests of some of our state’s true heroes. I consider it a privilege to be able to be back here once again with all of you, among such outstanding leaders of Maryland’s law enforcement community.
Every single day that I have served as Governor, I have been immensely proud of our state law enforcement officers. Our county police officers. Our sheriff’s deputies. All of the men and women that you lead, in all of your communities all across the state. Our state and our nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of you and to all of the proud brave members of the thin blue line. You face danger rather than run away from it. Every single day we rely on your dedication, your elite training, and your consistent preparation, which is why for 7 years now on my administration, I have strongly supported the entire law enforcement community, public safety initiatives to enable you to do your jobs more effectively. We’ve provided more than $513 million to your local departments and private enforcement efforts, for your individual communities. We’ve worked with you to enact tax cuts for the Hometown HEROES Act for our retired law enforcement officers, firefighters, and first responders. We created a new Maryland criminal intelligence network, collaborating with you in order to assist police and prosecutors in going after and taking down people who are responsible for so much violence. And I vetoed a number of misguided reactionary bills passed by the legislature earlier this year which would further erode police morale, community relationships, and public comments, and do great damage to retention and recruitment efforts. I don’t have to tell any of the chiefs and sheriffs here today that this is an especially important time for everyone in law enforcement. In our state, in our nation.
Sadly, the unconscionable actions of a few have been used to question the character of and to demean all law enforcement officers, and to fuel what I would call an all-out assault on the entire law enforcement community.
Last year when the defund the police movement started gaining momentum, I was one of the first leaders in Maryland to stand up and speak out loudly against it and to completely reject the idea. I want to reiterate here again today what I’ve been saying for more than a year: Trying to reduce crime by defunding police is a dangerous, radical, far left idea. We just had last week a city councilman in Baltimore City call for completely abolishing Baltimore City Police Department. Thinking you can improve law enforcement by defunding police is like saying you can improve education by defunding the schools. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. Homicides are surging across the country. There are violent crime waves in nearly every major city. Law enforcement agencies nationwide, including many of the departments that you all lead, are struggling to attract qualified candidates. And many current officers are retiring early or choosing to walk away. There could not possibly a worse time for anyone to call for defunding the police, defunding public safety. The fact is, our police are underfunded and under attack. To reverse the tide of rising crime, the first thing we have to do is stop sabotaging and demonizing the dedicated men and women who work for you and who put their lives on the line every single day for the rest of us. Enough is enough. We cannot defund the police. We need to refund the police.
[Applause]
Instead of less funding, we need more investment to recruit and retain quality officers, so that we can increase diversity, so that we can expand community policing efforts, so that we can teach better de-escalation techniques and improve training, so that we can provide body cams and other technology and equipment. We need to increase funding for law enforcement in order to improve policing, build more trust in the community, and most importantly, so that we can make our neighborhoods safe. Reducing resources, reducing police officers, reducing training is not the answer. I will tell you that the state of Maryland will not be defunding the police under my watch.
[Applause]
On Friday I had an announcement where we talked about instead of defunding police, we’re going to refund the police. It was the first in a series of announcements regarding our initiatives. Beginning with, as I announced on Friday, an additional $150 million of increased support for our police and increased crime control and victim protection efforts all across the state. Our refund the police effort includes an additional $45 million, a 50 percent increase, in aid to all of you, our local jurisdictions all across the state.
[Applause]
With vacancies rising and recruitment waning, we will be providing $50 million to fund hiring bonuses and salary increases to ensure adequate compensation for all of our state policing agencies. And our initiative also includes $24 million for body cams, de-escalation training for both state and local law enforcement agencies. I know some of you have been pushing for it for a while, and I’m happy to announce that we’re also putting in an additional $1 million directly into your two organizations, the Maryland chiefs of police association and the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association to help you further expand your operational training and support.
[Applause]
Our $150 million refund the police initiative will provide desperately needed investment in our state and local police agencies. But that’s just the start. There’s a lot more work to be done. In addition to investing more in law enforcement, we also need to get the legislature to finally agree to pass laws that hold violent criminals accountable. We’ve been pushing this for years. Twice we’ve passed it in the Senate but the members of the House continue to allow no accountability for violent crime. We need prosecutors who will actually prosecute criminals. And we need judges who are more accountable for sentencing for violent felons and repeat offenders. In the coming weeks I will be announcing additional proposals including multiple pieces of legislation to support all of these crime fighting initiatives. We’re going to need your support and your help to get that done.
In closing, I just want to take a moment to very sincerely thank each and every one of you for choosing to serve and protect the people of our great state. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for your service. I want to let each of you know, especially in today’s environment, far too often our law enforcement officers are unfairly criticized and don’t get the recognition that they deserve. You will continue to have the full support of your Governor. I will continue to have your back and continue to proudly stand with each and every one of you.
May God bless and protect our law enforcement officers and all the great leaders here today. May God continue to bless the great state of Maryland. Thank you.
[Applause]