Reno, NV
~ Monday, June 26, 2017
Thank you, Sheriff Champagne, for that kind introduction. I
am honored to be here at your annual conference. I am always happy to leave
Washington, D.C. for a few hours, especially when I get to spend that time with
brave men and women of law enforcement. Thank you for your willingness to
protect and to serve.
There is a story about two police officers who pull over a
fancy car for a traffic stop. One officer walks to the driver’s side while his
partner stands behind the car. As the first officer approaches, the driver
rolls down the window and leans out, shaking his fist. “Do you know who I am?
Do you know who I am!?” The second officer hears the ruckus and calls out, “Is
there a problem here?” And the first officer replies, “Yes, it seems that this
fellow doesn’t know who he is.”
Law enforcement officers can never forget who they are. When
you take the oath, you are the job. You are never fully off duty. You always
represent your agency. You benefit from the reputation earned by people who
served before you. Protect it, and encourage others to protect it, too. That
requires vigilance, a commitment to truth and justice, and a realization that
our own actions, and the conduct of each of our colleagues, affect all of us.
For many citizens, their most significant contacts with the
government are contacts with the police. Interactions with law enforcement
officers form indelible memories. To them, you are the government. Keep in mind
that maintaining public confidence is part of your job. Make sure everybody understands
the pride that you take in your work.
Two weeks ago, my 15 year old daughter gave a presentation
about North Korea to her 9th grade government class. She focused on the case of
Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia college student who allegedly took a
poster off a hotel wall and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. While my
daughter was giving her speech, one of her classmates checked his cell phone –
they aren’t supposed to do that, but sometimes kids break the rules -- and they
learned that Otto had returned home.
But North Korea sent Otto home with brain damage. And last
week brought the tragic news about Otto’s death. North Korea will not hold
anyone accountable for Otto’s death. It is a totalitarian government with no
concept of the rule of law. No civil rights. No due process. No justice. No
apology for concealing Otto’s condition from his country and from his family.
My daughter could not believe that a place as evil as North
Korea exists in the 21st century. Sometimes people get so caught up complaining
about the imperfections in our own system that they fail to appreciate how
fortunate we are. But my daughter will not forget. She and her classmates are
grateful to live in a country filled with law enforcement officers who obey the
rules and protect civilians from harm. People who run toward gunfire so the
rest of us can get away safely. People like you.
National Sheriff’s Association has a proud history. The NSA
was chartered in 1940, and now represents more than 20,000 law enforcement
officers. But long before your association existed, the sheriff was already a
legendary figure in American history. Sheriffs were essential in bringing law
and order to new American territories and states. Their civilizing influence
assured settlers that it was safe to bring their families west. Sheriffs kept
the peace. Today, more than a century later, the sheriff’s star represents the
rule of law.
Some people who wore that star are legends now. Bat
Masterson, a close friend of Wyatt Earp, was a sheriff in Ford County, Kansas,
during the late 1870s. Pat Garrett was a sheriff in Lincoln County, New Mexico
in 1880. He is credited with killing Billy the Kid. Two American presidents
served in sheriffs’ offices. Theodore Roosevelt was a deputy sheriff in Billings
County, North Dakota, and Grover Cleveland was the elected sheriff in Erie
County, New York.
The Andy Griffith Show depicted a supposedly simpler era
when officers relied on folksy humor and common sense to outwit backwoods
bootleggers and law-breaking city slickers. Sheriff Andy didn’t even carry a
gun. That show bears little in common with the realities that you face on the
streets today.
Similarly, the Old West image of the sheriff wearing a
cowboy hat, and holstering a Colt. 45 single action revolver on his gun belt
while riding his white horse to the rescue has mostly vanished into legend.
In the 21st century, sheriffs still ride to the rescue, with
all the tools and training of modern law enforcement at the ready to face the
challenges of the day. Those challenges are many.
After nearly three decades of decline, violent crime is
rising at an alarming rate. In 2015, violent crime increased nationwide by 3%.
The murder rate during that same time increased by more than 10%. Some major
cities have suffered even larger increases. Baltimore’s murder rate has
skyrocketed, with more people killed in the first five months of 2017 than any
other year on record. Those numbers represent real victims and families. We
cannot afford to sit back and allow the violent crime rate to increase.
The President and Attorney General Sessions have made
reducing violent crime a priority. As part of the effort to turn back the tide,
the President issued an Executive Order establishing the Task Force on Crime
Reduction and Public Safety. The Department of Justice is leading the Task
Force, and it is hard at work.
That work included a successful National Summit on Crime
Reduction and Public Safety last week in Bethesda, Maryland. The Summit brought
together federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers, victims’
rights advocates, prosecutors, and academics from 37 different states. The Task
Force will incorporate the ideas generated at the Summit into a report that
will include a series of recommendations. I expect those recommendations to lead
to results.
The White House has further demonstrated its commitment to
the fight against violent crime by announcing a budget that calls for hiring
300 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Those new federal prosecutors will work in
your communities to prosecute dangerous criminals. But, make no mistake, the
federal government alone cannot reduce violent crime. This will be a team
effort, and the Department of Justice stands ready to fight this worthy battle
alongside you.
There are too many places in America where fighting crime is
like a game of “whack a mole.” Does anybody know that game? Most children’s
games are electronic now, but you still see that one from time to time at
arcades. Players use a rubber mallet to hit toy moles that pop up through
holes. Each time you hit one, another one pops up in a different place. Then
the one you just hit pops up again, in exactly the same place.
Law enforcement should not work that way. When we play by
the rules and gather sufficient evidence to convict a dangerous repeat
offender, we should be able to rely on the justice system to keep that criminal
off the streets. Law enforcement is not a taxi service.
In some American cities, criminals no longer fear the
justice system. Those cities are failing in one of government’s most
fundamental duties: to keep people safe. The first principle of law enforcement
is deterrence. That is what we should strive for. Filling prisons is not our
goal. Our goal is to prevent crime.
Deterrence is a very simple concept. You will understand it
if you watch how people react to automated speed cameras. Some people ignore
speed limit signs. But they slow down right before the cameras. Then they speed
up again. The lesson is that laws do not regulate conduct. Enforcement changes
conduct. More importantly, the expectation of enforcement deters prohibited
conduct.
If we are serious about reducing violent crime, we need to
keep violent repeat offenders behind bars, so they cannot do any more harm, and
so others will be deterred from following in their footsteps.
Along with violent crime, drug abuse is rising in America,
and it is wreaking havoc on our children.
Some people say that we should be more permissive and
tolerant about drug abuse. I think we should be more honest about the clear and
present threat to America.
If you look at a graph of drug overdose deaths, it is
frightening. In 1968, there were 5,000 deaths. In 1990, there were 8,000. The
rate was relatively constant as a proportion of the American population for
decades. Then it increased more than 500 percent over the next 25 years.
In 2015, more than 52,000 Americans lost their lives to drug
overdoses – 1,000 dead every week. To put that in perspective, the United
States lost almost the same number of lives in battle during the entire Vietnam
War.
The preliminary numbers for 2016 show an increase to almost
60,000 total overdose deaths. That will be the largest annual increase in
American history.
For Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses now are
the leading cause of death.
Most overdose deaths are caused by heroin and other opioids.
Opioid drugs are causing unprecedented destruction in our communities. More
than 33,000 Americans died from heroin, fentanyl and other opioid drugs in
2015. On an average day, 90 Americans will die from an opioid-related overdose.
About four people will overdose and die while we sit here this morning. They
leave behind parents, spouses, children, and friends.
I know that many of you come face-to-face with this
destruction on every shift. In many jurisdictions, law enforcement officers
respond to so many overdose calls on a daily basis that Narcan is now as
indispensable to their work as handcuffs. As law enforcement officers, you are
often the first person on the scene. And, you are all too often the person who
bears the burden of delivering the tragic news to a shattered family.
This killer knows no geographic, socioeconomic, or age
limits. It strikes city dwellers and farmers, Hollywood stars and homeless
veterans, grandparents and unborn grandchildren.
The opioid problem is partly a result of doctors and
pharmacies overprescribing and diverting pharmaceutical drugs. Last week, a
doctor in New York was arrested for running a pill mill operation. He allegedly
distributed 4 million oxycodone and Xanax pills.
Another major cause of the increase in overdose deaths is a
synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than
heroin, and ruthless drug dealers are using it to cut their heroin. It is so
powerful that a quantity equal to a few grains of table salt can kill a person.
As if that isn’t bad enough, we are now seeing another synthetic opioid known
as carfentanil. It is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more
potent than morphine. In fact, it is, literally, designed to tranquilize
elephants. It is manufactured in Chinese laboratories, shipped to the United
States directly or through Mexico, then mixed with heroin, and sold to people
whose lives are destroyed by addiction.
Touching or accidentally inhaling fentanyl or carfentanil
can be deadly. Law enforcement officers and paramedics in several jurisdictions
have required medical treatment due to inadvertent exposure. Those incidents
led the DEA to issue a law enforcement advisory two weeks ago regarding the
safe handling of fentanyl. DEA also posted a training video on its website. If
you have not read the advisory and watched the video, please do so. And tell
your colleagues back home about it.
We must work together to do everything within our collective
power to stop people who distribute poison. Success will require sustained and
coordinated efforts by all levels of government.
Most federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are
engaged on this issue. You will read more headlines like the one last week from
Lubbock, Texas, where a defendant received 135 months—that’s 11 years—in
federal prison for conspiring to distribute fentanyl. We will also continue to
aggressively prosecute corrupt physicians, like a physician from New York who
was recently sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for prescribing large
quantities of a highly addictive opioid painkiller without a medical basis.
As part of the effort to reduce violent crime and address
the opioid epidemic, the Department of Justice is ramping up immigration
enforcement. Securing our border is essential to protecting our national
security. It is also essential to preventing MS-13 and other transnational
gangs and drug cartels from gaining ground in the United States. We have
already made progress. Illegal border crossings have fallen precipitously in
recent months, and we are taking steps to ensure that progress continues.
For example, we surged 25 immigration judges to courtrooms
along the southwestern border. We will add more judges to the immigration bench
over the next two years. The Department temporarily detailed Assistant U.S.
Attorneys to border districts where they will help prosecute
immigration-related crimes. Our U.S. Attorneys are making those cases a
priority.
In addition, the Department of Justice is working with local
jurisdictions to make sure they comply with federal law and assist the
Department of Homeland Security in carrying out its duty to combat illegal
immigration.
These measures will help us to secure the border. And securing
the border will make our communities more safe.
Mentioning those specific categories of crime does not
diminish the tremendously important work that is being done in other areas. The
Department of Justice is unwavering in its commitment to prosecute terrorists,
fraudsters, child pornographers, corrupt politicians, civil rights violators,
and human traffickers. No matter what the crime, we need your support to fight
it. And you will have our support.
Most law enforcement occurs in your agencies, not in mine.
The overwhelming majority of American law enforcement officers are state and
local. When citizens back home in your communities think about law enforcement,
they picture the men and women in this room. They see people like Lt. James
Creed of the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts.
May, Lt. Creed was dining at a local restaurant with his
wife when a man began stabbing a waitress and a restaurant patron. Lt. Creed
rose to his feet, drew his weapon, and ordered the man to the ground. The
suspect instead charged at Lt. Creed with the knife, and the officer shot him.
It turned out the man had murdered a woman moments earlier. More innocent
people would have died had it not been for Lt. Creed’s heroic actions.
This room is full of heroes like Lt. Creed. I know that
every time you pull over a car, execute a search warrant, or respond to a call
for service, you put your life on the line. You do that even though you may be
afraid, even though you have families of your own at home. I want you to know
that the Department of Justice has your back. We are committed to keeping you
safe.
Officer safety is a priority for us, as reflected by the
President’s Executive Order on Preventing Violence Against Federal, State, Tribal,
and Local Law Enforcement Officers. The Executive Order is known as the “Back
the Blue Order.” The Justice Department is carrying out that order by working
to provide you with additional protection.
We recently joined with the Department of Homeland Security
to roll out the National Blue Alert Network. The Blue Alert Network is similar
to the Amber Alert Network. Whenever a criminal engages in violence against a
law enforcement officer, the new network provides rapid dissemination of
information to law enforcement, media, and the public to aid in apprehending
the suspect. Members of my staff are meeting with law enforcement agencies to
get their input about what more the Department can do to protect officers.
It is essential that our agencies work together. Terrorists,
violent gangs, drug cartels, sophisticated fraudsters, and other dangerous
criminals are unconcerned with jurisdictional boundaries. So we cannot afford
to let boundaries prevent us from catching them.
The Department of Justice and federal law enforcement
agencies need to partner with other law enforcement agencies. Perhaps the best
example is the joint federal, state, and local task force model. The use of
joint task forces increases our crime fighting abilities exponentially. Task forces
bring together federal, state, and local law enforcement officers with the goal
of sharing resources and information to combat a particular crime problem.
There are terrorism task forces, violent crime task forces, drug task forces,
fugitive task forces, identity theft task forces, and others. Task forces are
resource-multipliers, and they result in thousands of successful prosecutions
at the state and federal levels. By sharing information, discussing
investigations, and collaborating on strategy, we can combat crime in ways none
of us could do alone.
Engaging with state and local law enforcement agencies has
been one of the Attorney General’s goals over the past few months. He has
visited many states, and he has spent considerable time meeting with law
enforcement officers. And, a member of my staff who started his law enforcement
career as a deputy sheriff is serving as the Department’s liaison to state and
local law enforcement. He is already working with NSA’s Executive Director, as
well as the leadership of other law enforcement groups.
Back in Washington, we are busy interviewing candidates for
the 93 U.S. Attorney positions. During those interviews, we discuss the
importance of the Department’s partnerships with state and local law
enforcement. Those partnerships are as important now as ever, given the threats
facing our nation.
I want to leave you with one final thought. We are
privileged to live in a country governed by a Constitution that protects the
rule of law.
And the rule of law is not just about words on paper. It is
about the character of the people who enforce the law. As Thomas Jefferson
said, “the execution of the laws is more important than the making of them.”
The rule of law is about the traditions that we learned from
our trainers and pass on to our trainees. The rule of law is about each of you.
America's sheriffs are on the front lines of the battle
against crime today, just as they have been throughout American history. Your
fellow citizens trust you to protect their families from harm. The men and
women who serve in more than 3,000 sheriff’s offices across the United States
do that every day with honor, bravery and devotion to duty.
Thank you for answering the call to public service. It is an
honor for me to work with each of you.
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