Policing is State and Local Responsibility

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, the vast majority of law enforcement across the country are good. They are competent. They are professional. And they serve with integrity. And when they don't, with the immense power they have over their fellow citizens, they must be held accountable, but that starts at the local level.

Policing is a State and local responsibility, not a Federal responsibility. When local leaders fail to do their job and citizens fail to hold them accountable, the system breaks down. You have incidences of abuse and, sometimes, cultures of corruption.

So what is the solution? It is not another top-down, one-size-fits- all from Washington, D.C.

We don't need to Federalize policing. We need to hold our local leaders accountable. We need to come alongside of them at all levels of government to make sure that we don't recycle the bad actors. So we get rid of them. And if we do, then the 1 percent won't take the 99 percent that are protecting and serving us and risking their lives to do so.

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