TOMS RIVER – Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy visited the White House recently as part of a trip with the National Sheriffs Association.
The sheriffs were in Washington, D.C. to discuss security and other matters related to police work with President Donald Trump.
The National Sheriffs’ Association is a professional association that provides information and education about such topics as police training, court security, and acquiring grants. Mastronardy is on the board of the Association, which represents more than 3,000 sheriffs.
The discussion with the president involved challenges that sheriffs around the country share. Recruitment and retention are difficult right now with the way people are hostile toward law enforcement, particularly with calls to defund the police, Mastronardy said.
Many of the sheriffs are dealing with the same issues. For example, police everywhere are fighting the opioid crisis, particularly with the increase in fentanyl, he said.
“There’s been a 93% reduction on the border,” he said, so that was good news.
Mastronardy said the president was very warm and open when listening to the sheriffs. There’s already been some follow-up between the federal government and the Sheriffs after this meeting.
The social media pages of the White House linked a photo of the Sheriffs Association with executive orders “to crack down on sanctuary cities and strengthen America’s law enforcement.”
The executive order reads, in part “When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer. My Administration will therefore: establish best practices at the State and local level for cities to unleash high-impact local police forces; protect and defend law enforcement officers wrongly accused and abused by State or local officials; and surge resources to officers in need. My Administration will work to ensure that law enforcement officers across America focus on ending crime, not pursuing harmful, illegal race- and sex-based ‘equity’ policies. The result will be a law-abiding society in which tenacious law enforcement officers protect the innocent, violations of law are not tolerated, and American communities are safely enjoyed by all their citizens again.”
The order directs the Attorney General to create a way to provide legal resources and indemnification to law enforcement who “unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law.”
It also would order the Attorney General or other department heads to create best practices for law enforcement to follow, expand training, increase pay and benefits, seek enhanced sentences for crimes against law enforcement, invest in security and capacity of prisons, and invest in the collection, distribution, and uniformity of crime data across jurisdictions.
The Secretary of Defense and Attorney General would determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities and personnel could be used to prevent crime.
The Attorney General will pursue all legal remedies and enforcement measures against state and local officials who obstruct law enforcement or who “unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens.”
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