National Police Week

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice and have fallen in the line of duty.

My husband, Detective Milford Hayes, has been on the job for 25 years. I know all too well the risk officers accept when they take this role. I have lived the anxiety of not knowing if my loved one would return home from a shift. I have watched my husband put on his dress blues and attend the funerals of fallen officers and mourn in the weeks and years after that. Over the past year, I have borne witness to the difficulty caused by growing mistrust between police departments and the communities they serve.

In addition to honoring officers this week, we must commit to rebuilding that trust and to providing them with the necessary funding they need to safely and equitably protect themselves and our community.

This is not a binary choice. Yes, we have systemic racial and social injustices that must be addressed. Yes, accountability needs to be addressed.

But on this day, in these remarks, during National Police Week, I ask my colleagues to join me in committing to supporting all of the good officers that are out there, to ensuring officers have clear national guidelines regarding use of force, to providing access to diversity training, and to ensuring departments have necessary supports to serve communities with underlying social challenges.

This will protect both police officers and the communities they serve from unnecessary violence. This will also attract new officers to the profession.

I ask that we honor fallen officers by committing to action. We must provide the necessary guidelines, training, and social services required to support our communities and to guarantee the safety of law enforcement.

We must ensure that my husband and every officer makes it home to their families safely.

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