POTUS Unveils Safer America Plan as White House Drug Control Office Honors Agency Efforts
Last week, President Joseph Biden unveiled his Safer America Plan, an initiative to disrupt drug trafficking, reduce the burdens on law enforcement, and invest in community-based programs. In the approximated $37 billion proposal, the White House outlines the strategy it will use to address violence with fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations. Congressional approval is still required.
In the proposed plan, administration officials propose imposing tough penalties for fentanyl trafficking; investing in mental health and substance use disorder services to reduce police workloads; ensuring criminal justice settings provide treatment; and ending crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentencing disparities.
With nearly $13 billion allocated to the COPS Hiring Program (CHP), police departments will be able to hire and train an additional 100,000 officers over the next five years. Another $3 billion will be allocated to clear court backlogs and an additional $5 billion to set up community violence intervention programs and task forces to share intelligence on gun violence. To help municipalities and states prevent violent crime and ease the burden on police officers, a $15 billion grant program will support stakeholders in identifying non-violent situations that may require public health intervention.
Furthermore, the plan calls for Congress to pass legislation strengthening background checks and banning assault weapons and increasing funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“We need to fund police who walk the beat, know the neighborhood, are accountable to those they are sworn to serve, and build community trust and safety,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “We need to invest in mental health and substance use treatment services, crisis responders, and social workers to reduce the burden on police officers and prevent violent crime. We need to expand community violence interventions.”
Earlier this week, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) thanked the White House for taking decisive action to address threats by strengthening law enforcement's capacity to act and providing resources for mental health professionals to engage as crisis counselors.
“The President’s plan acknowledges a simple reality: law enforcement are not mental health counselors. Often, law enforcement officers are put in the position of being crisis counselors, childcare coordinators, translators, and many more roles we dutifully do on behalf of the American people but are truly not equipped for,” stated Larry Cosme, FLEOA's National President. “The role of law enforcement is to maintain public safety, investigate wrongdoing, and prevent crime. While we will always do what is necessary to further these goals, we support increasing access to mental health and substance abuse services so non-violent individuals who need help, more than policing, are able to get that help rather than enter the system. This decreases the physical and mental burden on law enforcement and allows law enforcement to focus on the issues that warrant out attention, such as violent crime,”
Following the plan's issuance, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recognized law enforcement partners at the United States Interdiction Committee (USIC) Awards for their work to help advance President Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy.
ONDCP Director Dr. Rahul Gupta expressed gratitude for the heroic efforts of law enforcement officials, noting how crucial it is to keep our communities safe and healthy.
“President Biden’s Strategy to beat the overdose epidemic goes after two key drivers of it: untreated addiction and drug trafficking,” said Dr. Gupta. “The law enforcement leaders in this room today have helped advance that Strategy by interdicting drugs like fentanyl that are claiming a life every five minutes around the clock, and depriving drug traffickers of their profits.”
Dr. Gupta then presented awards in the following areas: Interdiction and Intelligence Support; Detection and Monitoring; Maritime Interdiction; Land Interdiction; Highway and Railway Interdiction; Investigation and Prosecution; Joint Operations; Major Campaign and Strategic Planning; and Special Recognition / Counter Narcotics Force Enables. Among those honored are the Homeland Security Investigations' (HSI) New York Dark Web and Cryptocurrency Task Force, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Matt Bowman, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Phoenix Division.
“Our incredible HSI special agents play an instrumental role in the detection, disruption, and dismantling of individuals and criminal networks engaged in transnational narcotics smuggling and trafficking,” said P.J. Lechleitner, Acting Deputy Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “I am proud to recognize our dedicated professionals and honored to partner with ONDCP – we will continue to work tirelessly to contribute to whole-of-government efforts that take down those engaged in these crimes and keep global communities safe.”