Issue Position: Public Safety

Issue Position

"At the end of the day, making sure our families are safe is the most important job we can do." -- Lisa Blunt Rochester

I still remember the day that I jumped into my car, in my pajamas, when my son called and told me he had been pulled over. For far too many mothers like me, our strong need and desire to have the safest streets possible is complicated by the reality that, unfortunately, systemic problems exist within our judicial system that disproportionately affect people of color.

We are all dealing with the realities, right now, of crime in our largest city and in other areas of our state. While the police in Delaware have done their best to make our streets safe, it has never been more important to make sure our police are working in partnership with our communities. It can be done: As State Personnel Director, I led an investigation of the Delaware State Police for racial and sexual discrimination. We brought local and national experts in policing together with civil rights activists, and the 2001 Blunt-Bradley Report served as a roadmap to improve the internal and external relations of the State Police.

We must do more, both at the federal level and here in Delaware, to tackle the underlying problems that cause people to turn to crime in the first place. As Secretary of Labor, I worked to create One Stop Job Centers to better deliver support to job-seekers. That's the kind of thinking we need in Congress to create real economic opportunities for everyone, so we put more of our communities to work and keep them off the streets.

In Congress, Lisa will be a champion for protecting our communities by:

Promoting economic equality and creating satisfying job options.
Working to close the educational achievement gap as a critical part of finding a holistic approach to crime prevention.
Furthering her work to bring police and communities together to figure out how best to protect our neighborhoods.

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