Police officers … an endangered species

The last few years we have seen more and more of the attacks on our law enforcement officers than ever before. In 2019 there were156 officers that died in the line of duty. In 2020 the number rose to 387 officers who died in the line of duty.

In 2021 that number rose even more to 526 officers who died in the line of duty. We are now, as of Feb. 14, only 45 days into the new year and already 44 officers have died in the line of duty and another 73 officers across the country have been shot!

The anti-police movement has been going strong for the last two years with calls from the mobs, the tv media and the politicians to disband, defund, replace and also even kill the police. They have demonized the police as the root of all evil and the problems that our country is facing.

They have told everyone that if they do not agree with the police then you have a right to resist arrest and even attack the police. It has been said that if you tell a lie loud enough and keep repeating it then people will begin believing it.

Well, these lies and actions have had a devastating effect upon the field of law enforcement. Officers are losing heart and losing hope that things will get better.

For years I have talked about what is needed for a strong and healthy police force and that is recruitment, retention and retirement. You must get them in the door, keep them and then at the end of their career get them to retire so that you can get a new younger officer.

Recruitment is almost impossible because no one wants to be an officer now. Retention is not working, as more and more officers leave to find some other type of work or a safe, quiet department to work for to end out their careers.

The only thing really working is retirement and that is way up as many officers take an early retirement if they can. Officers are no longer staying past their retirement dates.

This means police forces are down and departments across the country are fighting with each other in an effort to get officers from other departments. Police officers are working longer shifts, having a heavier workload and feeling stress more than ever before. Many are beginning to question their choice of a law enforcement career.

Many of the politicians have passed laws that have taken away some of officers’ powers and their rights. These politicians don’t want just transparency they want officers to be vulnerable and to put them in jail if they can.

An example is that you as a citizen have more rights to shoot or use force against a criminal than a police officer. The standard for “use of force” used to be what is “reasonable” and it still applies to citizens. The Supreme Court for the United States has ruled that “reasonable” is a good standard for use of force, but Maryland has raised the standard way too high.

The police, as of July 1, 2022, when using force must now prove that the force they use was “necessary and proportional!” When asked for a definition of what this means the politicians, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and even the Police Training Commission could not give one.  We in law enforcement were told that it will be up to the courts to decide and that would mean that police officers will be charged with crimes and go to jail when using force and the case law from those trials will provide the definition.

It will mean that we will be putting many officers through years of going to court, paying lawyers and having their lives turn inside out and losing everything to come up with the definition of this new law. The politicians are introducing even more laws up in Annapolis this year to do more harm and make it easier to go after your officers and charge them with crimes.

The question now is what can we do … or what can you do? Well, if you are part of the silent majority that we all have heard about, it is time to no longer be silent.

You don’t need to stand out with a sign on the street corner or even protest. You need to talk to your local elected officials and tell them to support your officers. Give them their pay raises, good health benefits and stand behind them.

The new commissioners for the City of Cambridge have been trying to undo the years of damage that the Cambridge Police Department received with no raises and reducing the force from 52 to 46 and then losing 30% of that. The force got down to only 28 officers at one point, but the force is coming back due to the hard work of the department’s police chief and the city commissioners in office right now.

The city is giving bonuses for retention, recruiting and even for sign-ups from another agency. I commend them for their efforts and also the commissioners of Hurlock for taking care of their officers.

The Sheriff’s Department received some raises this past year, but also needs more support for its deputies from the county commissioners and I hope that we see that this coming year.

You can also talk with your elected officials that are in Annapolis. Tell them to stop some of these crazy new bills and laws that they are introducing to weaken and attack police officers and destroy law enforcement.

Finally, the last thing I want to leave you with is simple. When you are around an officer, in a store, on the street or in their car at a light beside you, just give them a “thumbs up” sign and thank them for their service or tell them you support them.

You may not know it but that simple act could just make their day. So, let’s start the “Thumbs Up for Law Enforcement” and maybe, just maybe with all of us pulling together we can turn this around before it’s too late and stop officers from becoming an endangered species.

Thomas R. Hurley is president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Cambridge-Dorchester Lodge #27, Inc. He retired in 2018 after 30 years with the Cambridge Police Department.