FIRST ON FOX – A nonpartisan police leadership organization that describes itself as the only national law enforcement advocacy group that endorses political candidates is weighing in on the 2024 White House race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Policing Leaders for Community Safety announced its endorsement of Harris on Monday, an announcement first reported by Fox News.
The organization says it is led by a diverse group of distinguished policing professionals who have led leadership groups for a number of major national law enforcement agencies, and emphasizes that its mission is to “advance policies that make communities and the people who live in them safer, improve and advance policing, and uphold the rule of law.”
The group's backing gives Harris the endorsement of a major law enforcement organization, following the endorsement of Trump by the nation's largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, earlier this month.
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Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Fox News)
“This endorsement reflects Vice President Harris' track record and her unwavering commitment to public safety and the rule of law,” said Sue Reiseling, president of the Association of Police Leaders for Community Safety.
David Mahoney, executive director of Police Leaders for Community Safety, a former Dane County, Wisconsin, sheriff and president of the National Sheriffs' Association, said Harris “has spent her career as a prosecutor protecting people, supporting victims and holding accountable those who harm others and betray the public trust. As a legislator, she has fought hard for important law enforcement-supported policies needed to fight crime and protect the public.”
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Additionally, committee Vice Chairman Rick Myers, a former police chief in eight communities across multiple states, said, “We have too many politicians who claim to be tough on crime and say they support law enforcement, but lack the courage to do the right thing to keep us safe…We need a leader who will protect the Second Amendment and our country from the scourge of gun violence, and that leader is Kamala Harris.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign event at Throwback Brewery in Northampton, New Hampshire, Wednesday, September 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Despite declining trends in many crime categories nationwide, crime remains a major issue in the minds of American voters.
Trump has accused Harris, a former prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, of being soft on crime and police, blaming her for San Francisco's persistent crime problems.
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The former president and Republican candidate calls for more aggressive policing, less federal oversight and more militarization of local police.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Wilmington International Airport, Saturday, September 21, 2024, in Wilmington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Harris has focused on Trump's legal woes — he made history earlier this year when he became the first former and sitting president to be convicted of a felony — and has argued that he has been hostile toward law enforcement agencies that have investigated him.
The vice presidential Democratic nominee has highlighted the Biden-Harris administration's record of funding law enforcement through pandemic relief funds, as she has called for increased federal oversight and reduced military equipment for local police.
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“As a prosecutor who has worked with law enforcement throughout her career, Vice President Harris has taken a tough but smart approach to crime – improving conviction rates, holding violent criminals accountable, and keeping communities safe. She has also worked tirelessly to make our criminal justice system more fair, especially for communities of color,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement after the endorsement.
“This November, Americans will have to choose between someone who has spent his career enforcing the rule of law and someone who has been convicted of breaking the law,” she argued.
Harris' campaign noted that the endorsement follows the endorsement of the vice president by 100 law enforcement officers and more than 700 national security officials, including police officers who provided security during the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
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