Cops to Trump: Save us

Now that the dust has settled on the 2016 presidential election, it's time to think about what the next four years will look like. As a former cop and current police spokesman, I'm particularly concerned about what the immediate future holds for the brave men and women in blue who patrol the increasingly dangerous streets of America.

After suffering through eight years of an administration at war with law enforcement, we need a president who understands that cops do a difficult, important job that keeps us all safe. Too many have forgotten that or devalued the job police do.

Or worse.

Police killings are up over 70 percent in 2016, and fatal ambushes are up by over 150 percent. A downward trend in fatal assaults of peace officers ended in 2013. That's because murders of police have been up every year since Michael Brown died trying to disarm a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in 2014. It has resulted in the "Ferguson Effect," responsible for a sharp increase in violent crime, murder and attacks on cops coupled with a general tendency toward lawlessness in our urban centers. America is a considerably less safe place because of it, and policing is more hazardous than ever. Our hometown heroes, it seems, need a hero of their own.

This is where you come in, President-elect Trump.

We're asking you, Mr. Trump, to save us (cops) and to save US (the United States – a nation of laws, a nation of order, a nation of enduring principles).

You're off to a good start. You said all the right things on the campaign trail, keenly recognizing the complexities of modern-day police work and fearlessly rejecting the false narratives abounding that portray cops as racially biased, trigger-happy, soulless storm troopers. Contrast that with your opponent who parroted the same tired, baseless criticisms of police the Obama administration has advanced for eight years. She then had the audacity to invite the mothers of would-be cop killers to join her on the stage at the Democratic Convention, a slap in the face to police officers, their families and their supporters.

I believe that was the moment the winds changed in the 2016 election. In fact, I expect historians to remember it as the moment you sealed your victory, Mr. Trump.

Before then, law officers and law-abiding citizens seemed fairly indifferent to the outcome of this election. But the battle line etched in the sand by the convention gaff turned law and order into a wedge issue in this election. And a decisive one at that.

This tide-turner, I posit, set things in motion for my union, the Fraternal Order of Police, to become the only major labor union to endorse the Trump-Pence ticket. That's a big deal. The FOP endorsement is one of the most coveted endorsements in politics with nearly 350,000 members and millions of citizens who are influenced by our seal of approval.

The demonizing of police: How far will it go? Get a cop's-eye view of the current climate against law enforcement with Jeff Roorda's "The War on Police: How the Ferguson Effect is Making America Unsafe"

Before the convention, it seemed like the FOP was going to pinch its nose and stay neutral in the presidential election. That was the conventional wisdom anyway. The FOP lodge I manage in St. Louis had already decided to cast its vote for no endorsement in the state-by-state process the union uses to determine how to proceed in national elections. But after Clinton's "Mothers of the Movement" blunder, I implored my board to call an emergency meeting, rescind their previous vote and cast their preference for a Trump endorsement. As one of the largest lodges in the Midwest, we set an example that many others followed, parlaying the FOP endorsement for the Trump camp and delivering an upset victory that was touted by the press as improbable, almost impossible.

Now, sir, you must govern. That's no small task in a nation as vast, diverse and divided as this one. We are only divided as a nation when it comes to public safety because our leaders have told us to be. If you lead us in a different way and remind us all that we have a shared stake in the peace and security of our commonwealth, rational people will follow your lead.

After all, those who vilify policing are acting irrationally. They do so under the banner of "black lives matter" or "no justice, no peace" but everyone suffers under that mantra, most predominantly blacks whose lives are lost and whose peace is disrupted at an alarmingly disproportionate rate when cops' jobs are made harder.

Here's what we need from you, Mr. President-elect. Protect our due process rights so that we're not afraid to do our job. Proposals to change the rules of evidence, the standard of guilt or the rights against self-incrimination when it comes to charges against police officers are not only repugnant to the Constitution, they would result in the total shutdown of law enforcement and a return to the rip-roaring days of the Old West.

We also need to end meddling in local affairs. The framers of the Constitution abhorred the idea of a national police force – that's one of those enduring principles I spoke of earlier. But Obama's Department of Justice has been busy federalizing law enforcement one police department at a time through consent decrees, collaborative reform agreements and other bullying tactics that represent unabashed government overreach.

While you're at it, let's stop calling life-saving protective gear "militarized equipment." I've personally seen the MRAP's that were used in Ferguson. Every one of them is scarred with bullet dings that each represent a cop we'd have buried if those armored vehicles hadn't been deployed. Level 4 vests have been called intimidating militarized equipment that provoke riots, but if they would have been deployed at that fateful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, we'd have had five fewer police funerals this year.

One more thing: Don't take away our right to influence workplace safety and working conditions through agreements with our employers. BLM spinoff group "Project Zero" has made eliminating or diluting police union contracts its top priority. Please don't be their ally in that unjust crusade. You would never align yourself with Black Lives Matters' radical agenda in any other area. Don't make this your common ground with cop haters. The only thing that has saved working police officers for the last three years have been the protections we've negotiated in our union contracts.

Finally, there just aren't enough of us. We are in the midst of a national crisis when it comes to recruiting and retaining police officers. Most major departments are down by more than 10 percent of their pre-Ferguson staffing levels. And we were already understaffed then. Re-authorize the COPS grants of the '90s and make additional federal funds available so that local police agencies can afford to pay their officers a competitive salary. That will help with recruiting and retention but not as much as ending the senseless slaughter of police. When the job becomes safer, people will return to the profession.

All it takes to make the job safer is honesty and candor. And you, Mr. Trump, are known for your candor. If you use the Oval Office as the base of operations for rejecting the false narratives that have been manufactured about police, you will instantly see a normalizing of relations between cops and the communities they serve and a return to some semblance of peace and safety.

In other words, save us and you'll save US.