Betsy Hodges Quotes

I don't support defunding the police.

We are demanding police transparency and accountability so we can build trust and work together to make our communities safer.

I do not support the idea of defunding police departments. I believe that it does nothing to solve the root problems we must address and it makes our communities less safe.

No, I absolutely do not support defunding the police. But it's clear we have been investing too much in force and need to reinvest in understanding and serving our communities.

There is insufficient support for the police and safety and law enforcement, in general, in the city council.

As mayor, I would support law enforcement, not knock it down.

We need the cops, especially in the black community.

Police reform is working, and crime is falling.

Twenty-first century policing reform will require increased investment in law enforcement, not defunding it.

For me, in trying to talk about something like policing, it's such a huge issue, and it's an issue that's very local and very personalized to communities, to cities, to legislators, and so, in that way, I think as we started looking into talking about policing, the thing that you realize is that you can't paint everything with the same brush.

Everybody has a stake in the story of policing.

I've, in fact, very specifically said I don't support defunding the police.

Cops should not be separate from the black community or any community. Their salaries are paid for by the communities they police. They should be working for the communities they police. But as we saw in Ferguson, Missouri, they are not always doing that.

We don't ever want to create an environment where people are afraid of their own local police officers.

In Baltimore they can't do police work to save their lives. Now because of Freddie Gray they're not even getting out of the car and policing corners - they're on a job slowdown, basically. Right now if the police stopped being brutal, if we got police shooting under control, and the use of excessive force, if we have a meaningful societal response to all that stuff, and the racism that underlies it, the question still remains: what are they policing, and why?

Society questions the police and their methods, and the police say, Do you want the criminals off the street or not?

We need to work for a day when police shootings are rare and not the stuff of our daily news.

Let's talk about policing and public safety. Let's debate what works and what does not. We must abandon practices that do not work, and do more of the things that actually do work to save lives.

We have to have a national conversation about how police forces should interact with the African-American community, who happens to be paying their salary, who want to be served and protected, who these officers are take an oath to do so.

It's an issue that we need to have a national discussion about, the militarization of local police forces, and then when they are used to quell peaceful demonstration. Then we have a problem, and especially around this entire case of the murder of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer.

In order for us to respect law enforcement, it is necessary for law enforcement to respect us.

There are 18,000 different police forces in the United States and sometimes something wrong happens.

What I have seen in my travels across this country is the dedication, the commitment, and the resolve of our brave men and women in law enforcement to improving policing, to embracing the 21st Century Task Force recommendations, and to continuing to have a dialogue that makes our country safer for all.

At a policy level, we can support protecting and serving as opposed to militarization or disproportionate response. Step one is making sure we don't militarize and actually call for a review of military equipment in New York police forces.

We must transform the relationship between police and the communities they serve.