Voted against 'Defund the Police' bills

During the 2021 legislative session, I spoke out against – and voted against – a slew of bills brought forward by the activist “Defund the Police movement. It was obvious at the time that these bills were vague, poorly written, and would have disastrous impacts on our local communities.

I had hoped that the other side would take our amendments in committee or on the House floor, or work in a good-faith, bipartisan fashion to address the concerns of larger, urban areas without hampering our local police, emergency medical services personnel, and other first responders.

That wasn’t the case. The...