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Issues

Highlights of Senator Boxer's Record on Law Enforcement

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Violence on our streets and  in our communities threaten the safety and security of every American. Throughout her career, Senator Barbara Boxer has stood with America's law enforcement officers in fighting to put criminals behind bars, to get dangerous guns off the streets, and to prevent young people from entering a life of crime in the first place.

  • Standing Up for Law Enforcement: Senator Boxer has a long record of supporting the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to make our streets and communities safer.
    • She cosponsored the law to allow qualified off-duty and retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms and supports allowing local law enforcement officers to carry firearms on airplanes.
    • She has supported legislation to create a Bill of Rights for law enforcement officers — spelling out the due process rights for those officers who are subject to an investigation or a disciplinary hearing and ensuring that officers have the right to engage in political activities, including running for office.
    • Senator Boxer has cosponsored legislation to allow public safety officers around the country the right to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits, and working conditions.
    • She supports legislation to ensure that retired officers and their spouses receive their full retirement benefits by ending the benefit reduction that many receive in Social Security.
    • Senator Boxer supported increasing penalties for persons convicted of a violent crime while wearing body armor, to prohibit violent felons from possessing body armor, and to provide grants to help local law enforcement agencies purchase body armor.
       
  • Putting More Cops on the Streets: One of the most successful ways to reduce crime is to put more police officers on the streets. Senator Boxer was an early and strong supporter of the 1994 Crime Law that put 100,000 more local law enforcement officers on the streets, including over 15,000 in California; the COPS program helped lead to the biggest drop in the crime rate in decades. She has repeatedly voted for additional funding, including $1 billion in the recent economic stimulus package, to continue the COPS program and to hire an additional 50,000 officers.
  • Supporting First Responders: Senator Boxer is fighting to increase funding for local police departments, fire departments, and paramedics — the first responders who are on the front lines of public safety. She authored the First Responders Homeland Defense Act to create a telephone hotline to help local agencies obtain homeland security grants and to establish grant programs for homeland security training and for new communications equipment. She was an original cosponsor of both the Homeland Security Block Grant Act and the Domestic Defense Fund Act to help state and local governments pay for overtime costs, purchase equipment, and upgrade communications systems.
  • Fighting Gangs: Senator Boxer is the author of Mynesha's Law — legislation that would create local High Intensity Gang Activity areas and provide federal coordination and assistance to those areas to combat gang activity. She is also a cosponsor with Senator Feinstein of comprehensive anti-gang legislation that would increase federal criminal penalties for gang-related crimes, provide greater federal resources to states and localities to fight gang activities, and fund prevention and intervention efforts. In 2004, Senator Boxer secured over $3 million in anti-gang funding for Monterey County.
  • Combating Violence Against Women: While serving in the House of Representatives, Senator Boxer joined now-Vice President Biden in introducing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This legislation, which became law in 1994, toughened prosecution for domestic violence and continues to provide funding for campus safety, battered women's shelters, and training programs for law enforcement to identify and deal with cases of domestic violence.
  • Fighting Crimes Against Children: Senator Boxer is the author of the Violence Against Children Act, which would make more federal resources available to local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute crimes against children. The bill would also increase federal criminal penalties for crimes against children. In 2008, she offered an amendment to the budget to provide an additional $50 million to fight crimes against children. In addition, she was a cosponsor of the law — the PROTECT Our Children Act — that increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute child predators.
  • Ensuring Safer Schools: Senator Boxer introduced legislation to waive the matching fund requirement that schools have to pay to hire police officers under the COPS program. And she has authored legislation to provide grants to school districts to improve security at school through such things as surveillance cameras and metal detectors.
  • Combating Meth: Senator Boxer was instrumental in having California's Central Valley declared a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), which has brought millions of dollars and other federal resources to help local law enforcement shut down meth labs operating in the Valley. The economic stimulus package, which Senator Boxer strongly supported, provided additional funding for HIDTAs. She also cosponsored legislation to strengthen the certification process for retail sales of two key drugs that are used to make methamphetamines.