The most important issue for voters

Many of the candidates who have asked for our vote have forgotten that the primary responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are just pipe dreams when law enforcement, our criminal justice system, and our elected politicians cannot keep our citizens safe.

I take this position as someone who has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of the “defund the police” movement on law enforcement and communities across the country. Let us not forget that many of our elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels have enthusiastically embraced, promoted, and implemented the most radical parts of the “defund the police” agenda into their public safety practices and policies.

Consider that shortly after George Floyd’s death in 2020, elected officials in cities across America reacted reflexively and voted to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from police budgets. The result was fewer police officers, a 5% decrease, or 40,000 police officers, between 2019 and 2022, and more crime.

In fact, murders and other crimes in our country have risen in recent years to levels not seen since the 1990s. According to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey, violent crimes committed by strangers increased 37% in urban areas, 73% in suburban areas and 102% in rural areas in 2022. According to a Major Cities Chiefs Association violent crime survey, murders increased 21.5% and aggravated assaults increased 9% nationwide when comparing 2023 figures to 2019 figures.

Failure to prosecute minor crimes, failure to pay bail, and other policies that encourage bail reform have created a revolving-door justice system that fails to hold perpetrators accountable. In Washington, D.C., the average murder suspect was arrested 11 times before committing the murder last year. In Houston, police union leader Ray Hunt recently said, “I have never seen so many murder and capital crime suspects walking the streets of Houston on multiple bails in my entire life.”

Many school districts eliminated their liaison officer programs in 2020 as a result of the movement to defund police. The number of shootings and guns seized in schools has skyrocketed since then. During the 2021-22 school year, there were 188 shootings with casualties at public and private elementary and secondary schools across the U.S.—a record high and more than double the 93 in the 2020-21 school year. The value of school liaison officers was recently demonstrated in Georgia, when an Apalachee High School student killed four people and injured nine others before two highly trained school liaison officers responded quickly and forced the shooter to surrender.

In 2022, more than 100,000 people were killed by drug overdoses—a new record high. The reason for this is largely because so much fentanyl was easily smuggled across our porous southern border and because lenient prosecutors failed to vigorously prosecute drug crimes.

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So when you vote for your state and local politicians, ask yourself, “Who supports increased police funding, more cops, safer schools, and stricter criminal law enforcement?” When you vote for federal officials, ask yourself, “Who will seal off our southern borders, crack down on drug smugglers, hold state and local prosecutors accountable, and increase federal funding to fight crime?” Or, more succinctly, ask yourself, “Will my vote make my community and my country safer?”

Over the past few years, I have asked many a simple question: “Do you feel safe?” Unfortunately, the vast majority of answers have been “no.” On November 5, we all have the opportunity to do something about it and vote for candidates who will fight to restore public safety.

Louis Quijas is a member of Citizens Behind the Badge’s Law Enforcement Advisory Council. He previously served with the Kansas City, Missouri and High Point police departments, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security.