What is the issue?
Our Montgomery County Police Officers risk their lives every day to ensure our safety, and I am grateful for their service to our community. I will prioritize fully staffing our police department to improve response times and officer morale by ensuring our officers have the support, resources, and backing they need to do their jobs effectively. I will restore funding for School Resource Officers (SROs) in MCPS to provide crisis support and safety during emergencies, strengthen juvenile justice laws to address repeat offenders, and enhance coordination between police and residents to ensure every resident feels safe and heard.
What it means for you
- Prioritize fully staffing our police department to improve response times
- Improve officer morale through enhanced wellness resources
- Restore funding for School Resource Officers (SROs) in MCPS to provide crisis support and safety during emergencies
- Strengthen juvenile justice laws to address repeat offenders
- Enhance coordination between police and residents to ensure every neighborhood feels safe and heard
A Note on SROs
We are facing a crisis. Since removing SROs in 2021, we have witnessed the first two in-school shootings in MCPS history. Weapons incidents rose 30% last year.
The experiment to dismantle the supposed school-to-prison pipeline by removing officers has failed; disciplinary disparities have worsened, with minority suspensions skyrocketing. SROs are a vital insurance policy to prevent tragedy.
The true school-to-prison pipeline is the achievement gap. Only 15% of Hispanic and 22% of Black students are proficient in math; we are failing them. Low literacy, not police presence, is the real predictor of future incarceration.
We must create secure environments where learning can happen so our children come home alive. We must stop burying our heads in the sand.
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Because Montgomery County residents’ safety is too important to lose.