May 16, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 82 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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National Police Week (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 82
(Senate - May 16, 2019)
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[Pages S2899-S2900] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] National Police Week Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to be joined soon by my colleague and cochair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, Senator Coons, to honor the men and women who work for us every day to help protect us every day during Police Week. This is an annual event. It brings law enforcement officers to Washington from around the country and of course including my State of Missouri. As it turns out, Police Week is really a bad week to rob a store in Washington with a town full of policemen. Just last week, several would-be robbers came out of a robbery and almost ran into a group of St. Louis area policemen and a New Jersey policeman. They immediately chased down and arrested the perpetrators of that crime. Criminals are often not very smart, but you have to be particularly not smart to decide you are going to rob a store in Washington during Police Week. Thank goodness for those who wear blue and work to serve us and protect us every day and even do that when they are off duty and hundreds of miles away from home. So congratulations to those officers for what they did while they are here, and nobody is very surprised by that. When Senator Coons and I came to the Senate a little over 8 years ago, we started trying to find a law enforcement caucus to join, and found out there wasn't one, so Senator Coons said to me: Let's just start one, and we did. This is the week. We get a chance every year to talk about, specifically, what happens this week. We look for opportunities through the year to, No. 1, honor the people who work here protecting us every day, and, No. 2, to talk about things happening in the country that affect the people who protect us and protect police and sheriff's departments. This is the time of year, frankly, when the tragic loss of family is so evident as we add people to the police memorial. Four Missourians were added to that list this year. Deputy Sheriff Aaron Paul Roberts of the Greene County Sheriff's Office--the county I live in--died when his patrol car was swept into the Pomme de Terre River after he responded to a 911 call. Deputy Roberts had served with the Sheriff's Office for about 1 year, but he had previously served with the Willard Police Department for 4 years. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and by his parents. In April of 2018, Miller County Deputy Sheriff Casey Shoemate was killed when his vehicle collided with an oncoming vehicle while responding to a structure fire. He had served with that department for about 1 year as well, but he previously worked in two other Missouri police departments. He is survived by his two children, his fiancee, his parents, and his siblings. In March of 2018, Clinton Police Department Officer Christopher Morton was shot and killed when he and two other officers responded to a 911 call. As Officer Morton and his colleagues arrived at the scene, a man began shooting at them. The officers returned fire. They entered the building. The subject continued to fire. He fatally wounded Officer Morton and injured two of Officer Morton's colleagues whom I had a chance to visit with at that department not long after this incident. Officer Morton had been with the Clinton Police Department for 3 years. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. military through the Missouri Army National Guard. He had been deployed to Kosovo. He had been deployed to Afghanistan. His parents and siblings, I know, worried about him there but wouldn't have, in their wildest imagination, thought he would be killed at home near his hometown when reacting to a 911 call from a house. In March of last year, FBI Special Agent Melissa Morrow, of Kansas City, died from a brain cancer she developed following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. She had been assigned to the Evidence Response Team of the FBI Washington Field Office. She spent 10 weeks after that event recovering and processing evidence from the site in hazardous conditions. Melissa is survived by her parents, her sister, a niece, and a nephew. The names of these fallen men and women were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial here in Washington and to the Wall of Honor at the Missouri Law Enforcement Memorial over the last month. They will be remembered by people who benefited from and remember their bravery, their dedication, and their sacrifice. This is a time when we honor those who serve us, particularly for lives which have been lost, but it is also the time to think about what we can do to serve them in a better way, to be sure they have the equipment they need, the resources they need, and the training they need. I mentioned at an event earlier today that for the last 50 years, law enforcement and emergency rooms have also been, unfortunately for everybody involved, the de facto mental health delivery system in the country. Officers now take crisis intervention training to be sure they are really prepared when they are dealing with someone whose intent is not criminal, but their activities are impacted by their mental health issues and what to do in that situation so everybody is better served. We have worked hard to see that the Regional Information Sharing System in our State, headquartered in Springfield, is properly funded. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program has the center for our region in Kansas City. Those are things that Senator Coons and I have worked together on to do our best to fund. Two different times now, we have worked together to extend the Victims of Child Abuse Program. Last year, we again introduced the bill. I think the previous extension had been a 5-year extension, and we came to the end of that. This is the program where, at 23 centers in Missouri, people understand how to get the forensic information, the testimony they need from kids who have either been the victims of crime or witnesses of crimes. Every law enforcement person I have talked to, Senator Coons, every prosecutor I have talked to believes that what happens at these victims of child abuse centers can't be replaced anywhere else. Now we are working together on the National Law Enforcement Museum Commemorative Coin Act, a bill that the Senate passed last year, and the House didn't get to it. We want to do that again. The Law Enforcement Museum in Washington would be the beneficiary of the proceeds from that coin after the cost of the coin is paid. We are going to be working together on that. We have worked with other colleagues. I have worked with Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas on the Kelsey [[Page S2900]] Smith Act. It is named after 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, who was abducted and murdered in 2007. This bill strengthens the ability of law enforcement to get the information they need, quick access to someone's cell phone to get the information of where they might still be or where they last were when they separated from that phone, if that is what happened. Senator Stabenow and I are continuing to work on the Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act, something that every time we have support testimony on that act, it always involves law enforcement, which wants more focus on mental health courts and more focus on drug courts but particularly more focus on the ability of officers to deal with the situation in the best possible way when they come upon it. Remembering those who have fallen and continuing to work for those who stand up for us and run to the side of danger as they shield us from danger is important. I am glad to be joined today by my good friend Senator Coons from Delaware. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware. Mr. COONS. Mr. President, it is an honor and a joy for me to come to the floor today not just as the Senator representing Delaware but as the cochair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, which I am very proud to have a chance to lead with my friend and colleague Senator Blunt from Missouri. As you just heard, he recited some of the many ways in which we have been able to work together. Senator Blunt, as a seasoned senior appropriator, someone who has experience in the House of Representatives and in the private sector at home, leading an educational institution, and has worked in State and local government, along with my experience in local government and the private sector--I think that has allowed us to do really good and positive things for the men and women of law enforcement. This is National Police Week. It is an opportunity for us--not just here in the Senate but all over the country--to thank the hundreds of thousands of men and women in State and local law enforcement, as well as in Federal law enforcement agencies, who make possible the opportunity we have to enjoy our freedoms. Our basic safety, our ability to travel far and wide, to speak and live, and to praise and believe as we hope--all of this is made possible because of the ways in which our law enforcement officers guarantee those freedoms by literally putting their lives on the line for us each and every day. For that, we are eternally grateful. The Law Enforcement Caucus, which Senator Blunt and I founded, has held a number of engaging and important bipartisan sessions. You heard the Senator reference things like the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program and RISS, the Regional Intelligence Sharing System that helps to connect resources between Federal and State and local law enforcement. We also recently had a session on sharing relationship- building models where we had folks in from Delaware and Missouri to talk about how law enforcement serves as positive role models and mentors in the community through terrific programs. I look forward to continuing to work with my friend and colleague Senator Blunt on these issues in the year ahead in the Law Enforcement Caucus and to talking briefly here on the floor today about how we should not just give great speeches but actually take important actions to demonstrate to the families and to the men and women of law enforcement that we care deeply about their service and about whether they come home at the end of their shift. I serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. On a unanimous basis, we recently advanced a series of bills that will help advance officer safety, not the least of which is making permanent the Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program that has literally saved lives across the country. The capitol police--the police who protect Delaware's capitol and our courthouse--had a dramatic and personal experience with that when two law enforcement officers' lives were saved when they were shot in the line of duty, and it was only because they were wearing vests made possible by this Federal-State partnership that they survived. I will also continue to work to support the COPS Program, which ensures that we have officers on the ground in communities large and small in Delaware, such as Cheswold, Delmar, Laurel, Ocean View, Smyrna, and my home city of Wilmington. They all have been able to hire new officers in recent years because of the COPS Program. We are also working together on reforms to the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program to ensure that families of officers who are permanently disabled or lose their lives in the line of duty receive the benefits they richly deserve. Let me conclude by thanking and honoring a few specific officers from Delaware's law enforcement community for their service this past year. We have not had any Delawareans' names added to the Wall of Honor referenced by the Senator from Missouri, but all of us who have affection for and support the law enforcement community in Delaware know that we are simply blessed this year to have not joined that terrible roll of great honor of those who have given their lives in the line of duty. Let me briefly thank Sergeant Paul Doherty of the Delaware State Police, who was awarded the Robert J. Seinsoth Memorial Award as the 2018 Delaware Crime Stoppers Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. His investigatory work following up on a robbery led to the apprehension of a serial, dangerous criminal who harmed other Delawareans. Let me honor Detective Jonathan Moyer, who led the investigation of fraud and theft at Beebee Hospital in Lewes, DE. Let me honor Detective Ryan Schmid from the Dover Police Department. He is a 6-year veteran of that department and maintained an amazing clearance rate of 84 percent in investigated burglaries, robberies, and attempted murder and solved homicide. Lastly, let me recognize Detective Brad Cordrey, who is Delaware's Child Welfare Professional of the Year and has served under Georgetown chief of police R.L. Hughes, who said that ``Brad's dedication, compassion, and tenacity to solve serious cases are unmatched.'' There is so much more I could say, but given the number of my colleagues who have also come to the floor to speak, let me conclude by simply saying how grateful all of us are to the men and women of law enforcement. During this National Police Week, let me say what a great blessing it is to be able to continue to work with my colleague Senator Blunt of Missouri in cochairing the Law Enforcement Caucus in this Congress and hopefully for many years to come. Thank you. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
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