Capitol Words a project of the Sunlight Foundation

Sen. Sherrod Brown

Mr. President, we ask a great deal from our first responders, from firefighters, and from police officers to keep our neighborhoods safe from violence and drugs. We ask them to put their lives on the line, to save people from burning buildings, to track down armed criminals. We ask and they give each day and each night. That is why we cannot just honor them through parades, memorials, speeches on the Senate floor, showing up at various kinds of festivals, but we honor them by the priorities we set in our Federal Government, in State legislatures in Santa Fe and Columbus and Atlanta, in city halls, and in county courthouses.

Earlier this year, Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected issue 2, which would have curtailed the ability of first responders, firefighters, and police officers not just to organize and bargain collectively for their wages and their benefits but, much more broadly than that, to have them sit down and negotiate with their employers, with cities, with counties, with the State, and with taxpayers for safety equipment and adequate staffing.

This was a victory for them. The defeat of issue 2 was a victory for hard-working men and women in Ohio. It was the only time in American history when the issue of collective bargaining was on a State ballot for a statewide vote, and voters voted more than three-fifths--61 percent to 39 percent--to preserve collective bargain rates. Again, collective bargaining not just for themselves in terms of wages and benefits but collective bargaining for police officers' safety vests; for firefighters to have the right kind of safety equipment; for teachers organizing and bargaining collectively at the negotiating table for class size. It was way more than about them and that is why the voters of Ohio, in such a resounding number, voted to preserve collective bargaining and what it meant to public employees and what it meant to our way of life for those who are not public employees, and that is at the State level.

At the Federal level we must continue to fight to ensure these brave public servants have the resources necessary to safely perform their jobs. That is because so many give the ultimate sacrifice. In the last 10 years, 47 law enforcement officials representing 35 Ohio agencies were killed while on duty. Forty-seven law enforcement officials were killed while on duty just in a decade.

According to the FBI, 48 law enforcement officials across the country were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2009. More than 57,000 law enforcement officials were assaulted while performing their duties.

This past May during National Police Week, I attended a Greater Cleveland Police Officer Memorial service in Huntington Park in Cleveland. During the service, I met Sara Winfield of Marysville, OH. Sara's husband Bradley Winfield was a deputy in the Marion County Sheriff's Department, a north central community, when he was shot and killed while on duty. In her grief, this widow, with two young sons to care for, has become an advocate ensuring that those who protect us are protected themselves. That is why I cosponsored legislation introduced by Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin that would create a national blue alert system aimed at apprehending criminals who injure or kill law enforcement officials.

Modeled after the Amber Alert System used to find missing children, the blue alert system would disseminate critical information about suspected criminals to other law enforcement agencies, the public, and the media. When someone has gunned down a police officer, police departments all over the region, the State, and the country need to know about it. Blue alerts would be broadcast to local media and on messaging signs. It would include a detailed description of the suspect, the vehicle, and other identifying information. It would encourage State and local governments to develop additional protocols to help apprehend suspects.

Eleven States already have such a system, but if it is only on the State level and the perpetrator who killed the police officer escapes to another State that doesn't have it, it doesn't work so well. That is why Senator Cardin's national blue alert bill is so important.

Ohio doesn't have this. I am encouraged that the Ohio Senate recently passed a version of this law. Again, it needs to be national so that it goes across State lines, and we can obviously do that as police departments are talking to each other more than they ever have through technology.

I spoke to police chiefs from across Ohio like my city of Lorain, OH. Cel Rivera, the chief there, said the blue alert system would be a critical resource to track down criminals and to protect law enforcement. It would be made possible with existing community-oriented policing services such as, the COPS Program funded by the Department of Justice.

I remember 15, 18 years ago when the COPS Program began with President Clinton and the Congress in the 1990s. It made such a difference in helping local communities, small towns, big cities, rural areas, suburbs, to be able to staff up in a better way with community police officers.

It is these types of Federal investments that are so critical for communities facing significant budget shortfalls. Too many communities are forced to make cutbacks in essential services reducing staff size and scaling back investments on safety equipment. These choices are difficult, and they are made with great reluctance. That is why Federal grants such as the staffing for adequate fire and emergency response, so-called SAFER grants, or the assistance for the firefighters grant are critical to help communities hire more firefighters as well as recruit and retain first responders. The omnibus bill we are considering now will provide much needed investments that will help communities do that.

While I fight for stronger investments, it is clear every little bit helps. Earlier this week the Chillicothe Fire Department received a funded grant through the AFG Program. It follows the SAFER grant that not only helped hire personnel, it saves lives. Fire Chief Steve Gallacher, whom I have spoken with prior to this, was off duty when he experienced a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot to the lung. Without a grant that kept his neighborhood firehouse open or without the medic who was hired because of the AFG grant, Chief Gallagher says he would have died.

These Federal investments literally helped to save Chief Gallacher's life. According to him, 40 percent of deaths among firefighters occur due to cardiac arrest. He wrote to me:

When I helped write the grant application, I knew that it would save lives. But I never imagined that one of those lives would be my own.

With reduced tax revenues, with the increased need of vital public services such as fire and police, it is critical we help our communities carry out the most basic and lifesaving duties. We can keep first responders and firefighters and officials on the job.

We can establish an alert system to warn us when criminals seek to harm law enforcement officials. These are bipartisan actions that can help communities across Ohio and throughout the Nation.

I yield the floor.