Hillsborough Sun

Ahead of National Police Week, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) helped introduce the bipartisan Invest to Protect Act on May 11, 2023 in the House of Representatives. This bipartisan bill makes critical, targeted investments in small and midsize police departments for the recruitment, retention, mental health support, and training they need to protect themselves and New Hampshire communities.

“New Hampshire’s local law enforcement do critical work keeping our communities and our families safe, and this legislation will support their work and ensure that they have the resources and training needed to do their jobs,” said Congressman Chris Pappas. “This legislation will help recruit and retain officers, support mental health, and provide officers with the training needed to protect themselves and the communities they serve. Whether keeping deadly fentanyl and other illegal drugs off our streets, protecting individuals from violent crime, or acting as first responders to physical and mental health emergencies, our local police departments do lifesaving work each and every day, and I’m proud to help introduce this legislation that will help support their work and keep Granite Staters safe.”

The Invest to Protect Act of 2023 will:

Invest in officer safety, de-escalation, and domestic violence response training, allowing officers to receive critical training that will make them even more effective at their jobs;

Create grants for small departments to recruit and retain new officers, to help keep their existing officers and recruit new ones;

Allow departments to provide mental health resources for their officers; and,

Authorize $50,000,000 of existing funding per year for 5 years for local police departments.

Pappas helped introduce this legislation in 2022, which passed the House with 360 votes, including 153 Republicans.

Pappas has been a leader in Congress in advocating for additional resources for local law enforcement. In March of this year, he reintroduced the Establishing Accreditation Grants for Law Enforcement (EAGLE) Act, a bipartisan bill that authorizes $10 million in funding for small and mid-sized police departments to earn or renew accreditation from state, regional, tribal or national police accreditation organizations, such as the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

The bipartisan Invest to Protect Act is endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the National Troopers Coalition (NTC), the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the National Tactical Officers Coalition, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Original source can be found here.