Cincinnati FOP president Dan Hils and Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil, a Democrat, endorsed Steve Chabot for Congress on Monday, September 21, 2020.
There are a lot of significant differences between myself and my Democratic opponent for Congress this year. None is more striking than our differences on law enforcement.
I’ve worked with law enforcement for a long time now. When I was first elected to Cincinnati City Council back in 1985, I served as Chairman of the Law and Public Safety Committee. It had jurisdiction and oversight over the Cincinnati Police Department. As a Hamilton County Commissioner I worked very closely with Sheriff Simon Leis on a whole range of issues. And in Congress, I have served on the Judiciary Committee for 24 years now. This committee has jurisdiction over all law enforcement issues, including oversight over the Justice Department, the FBI, and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration.)
What I’ve come to appreciate over the years, is just how important law enforcement is to all of us. They put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe. They are the ones who literally run towards danger, rather than away from it, to keep our families safe.
They deserve our respect, gratitude and support. That’s why I introduced legislation in Congress recently that would honor and respect law enforcement, rather than undermine and vilify them. It’s called the Safer Communities Act, and contains a number of common sense reforms.
First, it calls for a GAO study of the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, Cincinnati’s response to the 2001 civil unrest in Cincinnati that took place following the Timothy Thomas shooting In Over-the-Rhine. The collaborative brought together the Cincinnati police, community leaders, law-enforcement experts, religious leaders, etc. and resulted in an improvement in police/ community relations which put Cincinnati at the forefront of police reform for nearly two decades now. It’s my belief that the collaborative could be a model for police reform across the nation.
Retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn.
Second, it would improve safety in communities across the nation by allowing any police officer who retires, and continues in either public or private security work, who is killed or seriously injured doing so, to be eligible for the Public Safety Officers Benefit Program. This would allow the family of the officer to receive education benefits for the children, and other benefits, including death benefits. It honors retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn who was killed answering an alarm at a small business during the riots in St. Louis some months back.
And third, it would require local police departments to retain disciplinary records, and make them available to other departments who might be considered hiring a police officer. This would help prevent bad cops from moving from department to department. Of course the vast majority of police officers are professional, and put protecting their communities as their absolute priority.
Now there is a stark difference between my record of supporting the police, and my opponent Kate Schroder’s record of undermining them. Here are just a few examples that illustrate this.
First, she supported the House Democrats Justice in Policing Act (Twitter link, 6/25/20; Facebook, 6/25/20), which among other things would have eliminated qualified immunity. Doing so would allow police officers to be sued routinely for merely doing their jobs, even though they have followed all appropriate police procedures, and done everything that they were taught at the police academy. This would put that officer and his family’s personal assets at risk, including the family home, their bank accounts, their retirement plans, etc. What person would want to take on such a job under those circumstances? The quality of police officers would be dramatically reduced, and put our communities at much greater risk.
Second, she favors eliminating cash bond (Facebook, 6/9/20), which would obviously put many more criminals on the street, and again make our neighborhood less safe.
And third, radical activists tried to put a charter amendment on the ballot defunding police here in Cincinnati earlier this year. It would have reduced the portion of the city’s budget set aside for policing from 36% to 25%! I spoke out forcefully against such a dangerous proposal. My opponent – was silent! She apparently feared alienating her radical activist supporters.
Yes, there are a lot of differences between myself and my opponent on the issues, but none are as stark as our disagreements over law-enforcement. That’s why I was so honored to receive the endorsement of both Dan Hils, President of the Cincinnati FOP, and Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil, who was elected Sheriff twice as a Democrat. In the words of Sheriff Neil: “I’ve been in law enforcement almost 40 years. I support Steve Chabot because Steve Chabot supports us. He supports law enforcement, always has and always will.”
You May Also Be Interested In
- Press Release: Cincinnati Fop President Says Schroder’s “Bad Judgment Would Put Our Communities At Great Risk” (September 9, 2020)
- Press Release: Cincinnati Mom Says Schroder “Too Big A Risk For Ohio Families” (September 18, 2020)
- Press Release: Democratic Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil Joins Cincinnati Fraternal Order Of Police In Endorsing Congressman Chabot For Reelection (September 22, 2020)