Law Enforcement

As someone with deep roots in the law enforcement community, Governor Easley is deeply gratified that state crime rates have dramatically dropped since he became Attorney General in 1993.

Yet even this drop is not sufficient in his eyes. He is dedicated to supporting further law enforcement success and taking major preventive steps in the educational and other arenas to nip crime in the bud with our young people.

The September 11th tragedy in New York shattered our nation. Its aftermath also highlighted the major resource needs of our law enforcement officers here and across the nation. Especially in light of federal government promises, Governor Easley has been disappointed in the level of Washington’s actual response so far. Governor Easley is still proud that North Carolina’s work on homeland security has been voted as one of the most far-reaching of any state in the nation.

With or without better assistance from Washington, North Carolina must face major challenges in law enforcement. For example, the state must continue to work on reducing DNA backlogs in crime analysis, enhancing the coordination of communication between law enforcement agencies, and fighting the growing “meth” epidemic. Despite the massive budget shortfall he inherited, Governor Easley’s leadership allowed the state to take some significant new steps in these areas. And as his successful efforts to install budget discipline continue to ease the fiscal crunch, Governor Easley is committed to making even more progress.

Governor Easley knows one area needing renewed attention is career support for our law enforcement. Just as we cannot maintain quality schools with high teacher turnover, we cannot expect to have quality crime control with constant turnover in our law enforcement personnel.

Governor Easley strongly believes in establishing the highest professional standards and training for all law enforcement personnel. He believes that such bodies as the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission must develop and promote the highest professional standards. He wants to make sure that as we go forward, the Commission has the necessary recourses and its make-up draws upon a current representative cross-section from law enforcement groups across the state.

Governor Easley is also hopeful that his successful efforts to instill fiscal discipline will enable his administration to take some now progressive steps on behalf of law enforcement compensation. Our public employees always shoulder a great deal of the burden during these tight fiscal times generated by the national recession. Yet under Governor Easley’s leadership, we have been able to avoid the mass lay-offs and pay cuts experienced in many other states. Especially in the case of law enforcement personnel, our fiscal situation should now allow the legislature to consider such steps as moving towards 25 year full retirement packages. Governor Easley will continue to be supportive of such action on behalf of law enforcement personnel.