Ted Wheeler Quotes

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

There are those who profess to support law enforcement but who have attempted to undermine the efforts of hard-working officers who make difficult decisions.

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

The Justice in Policing Act would enact comprehensive reforms to law enforcement that would improve police training and practices, while increasing much-needed transparency and accountability.

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

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

It seems to me that before we give federal funds to police departments, we ought to mandate that they have body cams.

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

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

Under Superintendent Johnson's leadership, our police department is on a path to earn the respect of every community in the City of Chicago.

In millions of encounters each year between the police and the public, it may be too much to expect that every officer will always get it right. But it is not too much to expect that we can put the right safeguards in place to hold officers accountable when they get it wrong.

The most important lesson I have learned from spending years talking to law enforcement officers is that the vast majority of them really want to do a good job. They have a physical need to do a good job. And yet, we don't give them the resources that would help them.

Here in Washington State, I've supported efforts to provide our law enforcement with the proper training and resources required to meet their changing and demanding needs of their job. In doing so, I feel that the community and the law enforcement relationship will gratefully benefit from a renewed sense of responsibility and accountability.

I see my role as police commissioner as providing strategic oversight, support and accountability for the bureau.

I think that a lot of these cops have been put in very difficult situations and tasked with very difficult jobs with very little training and very little help.

There has to be a readjustment of resources that is being diverted to police and policing as opposed to community health services, and there certainly has to be control over the police by the communities that they are supposed to protect and serve.

President Trump rightly points out that law enforcement is mostly made up of good people putting themselves in harm's way to protect us. He lauds the men and women in blue and often talks about the need to make it easier for the cops to do their jobs.

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.

[Police chiefs ] want support, they want more training, they want more assistance. And I think the federal government could be in a position where we would offer and provide that.

I believe it's important that we ensure that the police have a modern and flexible workforce. I think that's what is necessary, so that they can provide the public with the service that they want.

What we're also doing is helping police forces in terms of issues like procurement and IT, so that savings can be made in those areas which I think is the sort of thing that everybody is going to want us to be doing.

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.

You are not going to put 100,000 police officers on the streets overnight and do the right job. To put them on the streets, to see that they're properly trained; you have to do it in an orderly way over a period of time.

Police reform is working, and crime is falling.

I don't understand it and haven't understood in this world of technology: where every building has a camera, every ATM has a camera, why don't we have cameras on police officers?