When you think about how law enforcement serve their communities, you might picture police officers patrolling neighborhoods, responding to emergencies, and handing out traffic tickets. While that’s certainly part of how they serve, there’s a bigger picture. Police officers play a vital role in community well being, and unfortunately, the prevalence of anti-police sentiment makes their job a little harder.
Thankfully there’s one organization stepping in to help – the National Police Association (NPA) – and here’s how they help law enforcement serve their communities.
1. The NPA works to heal anti-police sentiment
It doesn’t take much searching to find out why people in general often hold a strong stance against law enforcement. There are plenty of articles, news reports, and even YouTube videos outing police misconduct, which includes officers harming and in some cases killing innocent citizens. Nobody is denying the existence of bad cops, but it’s unfair for people to conclude that all cops are bad based on the actions of those officers.
The problem is that people are gathering their information from the internet where most, if not all of the stories they read about police are negative. With millions of people posting about their bad experiences from all over the U.S., there ends up being a high concentration of negative stories on social media. When that makes up the majority of stories people read about cops, it makes sense that they would form the conclusion that all cops are bad.
That’s where the NPA comes in to help. They put boots on the ground to educate people through community service and publicity events, and they educate communities through mailings, PSAs, podcasts, books, and articles. They also have a spot on cable TV. Every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. EST, they run the NPA Report on PlutoTV CH 244. They also broadcast their show on TheFirstTV.com.
2.The NPA does legal advocacy work
In order to improve public safety and officer safety, the NPA engages in legislative and policy advocacy. They review bills as they’re introduced to the legislature and participate in endorsements, outreach, and public testimony where possible.
Other ways the NPA uses legal work to help police officers support their local communities include activism and advocacy. For example, the NPA routinely files lawsuits and FOIA requests that are of public interest. For instance, the NPA filed a lawsuit to obtain the Nashville shooter’s manifesto and other related records. They also provided testimony to Maine’s legislature to support medical care for retired state K9s.
If there’s an issue related to law enforcement, you can bet the NPA will be involved in some way, whether it’s providing written testimony, filing FOIA requests, or fighting for citizens’ rights to support police, like when an HOA in Florida banned homeowners from flying the Thin Blue Line flag.
Another way the NPA helps with legal matters is by entering relevant lawsuits as a friend of the court in order to help influence a positive outcome that benefits both police officers and citizens. They generally do this when something important is at stake, like when someone is trying to change laws in a way that would be detrimental to police or citizens.
3. The NPA supports police officers financially
Police officers work for government agencies that require money to operate. However, police and their programs are often heavily underfunded. Once again, the NPA steps in to help in these situations, too.
In addition to helping police officers serve their communities directly, the NPA also provides grants to various law enforcement programs that exist to help police departments achieve their goals. For example, they offer grants of up to $1,000 per year to reserve divisions, cadets, chaplains, explorers, and similar programs.
We need police officers in our communities
Although many people have been led to believe police officers are bad people and we need less policing in society, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Plenty of experiments have been done in cities where the police have been defunded and even outright banned. The results have been more violence, more crime, less safety, and more fear.
Thanks to non-profit organizations like the NPA, people are working tirelessly to restore the reputation of police officers as individuals who took on the task of serving their communities, even if it means risking their lives every day.
Being a law enforcement officer isn’t easy, and just because some officers do harm doesn’t mean all of them are out there looking to hurt people. Our society can’t function harmoniously with police, and we need more advocacy groups to unite officers with the citizens in the communities they serve.
