"There is no more critical issue confronting the next president than the safety of all Americans," said IACP President Ronald Ruecker, Director of Public Safety in Sherwood, Ore. "The harsh reality is that in the years since 2001, more than 99,000 Americans have been murdered and more than eight million have been the victims of violent crime. The United States needs a strategic plan that embraces the reality that protecting our communities depends on our ability to fight both crime and terrorism."
"Our nation's homeland security focus must be redirected to America's hometowns and neighborhoods if our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are to enjoy safe communities and declining crime rates," said Ronal Serpas, Chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and co-chair of the IACP's Research Advisory Committee. "The preservation of the fabric of America requires that the next administration meaningfully engage this issue early next year."
"President Johnson's 1965 Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice brought us new ways of measuring crime, an emphasis on research needed to combat crime in a free society, and evidence of what crime prevention and control programs worked," said Charles F. Wellford, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. "A new Commission would do all of this and, given the research base we now have to work with, establish a firmer foundation for confronting crime and terrorism in the 21st Century."
To Protect and Defend identifies several key areas that the nation's law enforcement executives believe are most in need of immediate action. These include:
* Reducing Violent Crime
