Last month, Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) questioned law enforcement officials about officer protection during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I recognize Mr. Jimenez, the gentleman from Miami, Florida, for five minutes questioning.
00:06 Thank you. Thank you very much. And, you know, most of you probably know that I was a firefighter
00:10 for the city of Miami, but probably most of you don't know that I was a special officer. I actually
00:15 served on the SWAT team of the city of Miami Police Department. So,
00:18 while I rode a red fire truck, I also, every once in a while, especially during certain difficult
00:26 times, I also rode with the police department. And so I honor the four of you for your service
00:32 in public safety and the police department. When I was the mayor of Miami-Dade, I was also the
00:39 sheriff of Miami-Dade. And one of the things that I did was after the incident in Paris, France,
00:46 I mandated that all my officers, patrol officers, etc., be equipped with AR-15s and enhanced body
00:54 armor. Is that something which is normal in the United States? And do you think that we should
01:01 protect our police officers, you know, more? We're asking them to take their life and put it at risk.
01:07 Should we, as a either community or a country, also give them the protection that they need in
01:14 order to carry out their tasks? And so I'll ask the four of you, is this something normal or is
01:18 this something a little bit unusual? Thank you for the question, sir. Protecting law enforcement
01:25 officers is essential and that comes in the form of equipment, including the body armor, the rifles,
01:31 all the weapons, the radios, less than lethal force methods, everything they need. And it
01:36 also includes the training. All of it together, they need to be properly equipped.
01:44 But is that normal? Are the officers in this country sufficiently protected
01:51 across the nation or is it something which is jurisdiction by jurisdiction?
01:56 I don't know that I can answer for the entire nation. I can say in the state of Tennessee,
02:01 it's generally jurisdiction by jurisdiction. It depends on funding.
02:06 Fair enough. I would agree it's jurisdiction by jurisdiction. And I served in Miami with
02:12 the Drug Enforcement Administration, so I know how dangerous it was certainly during the cocaine
02:16 wars down there. I think we do need to be equipped well. We need to be able to defend ourselves
02:20 against very violent criminals out there. But that does come down to a jurisdictional issue
02:25 and how those communities feel about how the police, law enforcement officers in those areas
02:30 should be equipped. Yeah, and I was on SWAT team during the cocaine war. So, yeah. Next.
02:34 I would say that's probably not the normal. I'd tell you in Austin, every officer is not equipped
02:40 with an AR, nor are they all certified to use one per se, as well as us getting enhanced body armor
02:47 is not standardized that they'll carry it on them all the time. It'll always be on their purse.
02:52 Would you want that? Absolutely.
02:54 Okay. Mr. Bryant.
02:56 Thank you. As a representative of law enforcement, not just nationally, but internationally,
03:01 I can tell you that it goes from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There's not an equal level of
03:08 distribution, nor an equipment or training. And so we have to improve upon that nationally.
03:14 All right. My second question is, Director Wray has informed us that because of the openness of
03:23 the border that he expects or he has apprehensions about a possible terrorist attack here in the
03:32 United States, because frankly, there was about 2 million people. We haven't the faintest idea
03:36 where they came from, who they are, where they are or why they're here. Do you all have the
03:42 same kind of apprehensions that Director Wray has? Yes, sir, I do. Very concerned about people
03:53 coming across the southern border and we don't know where they are and we don't know where they're
03:56 going. That absolutely concerns me. Yes.
04:03 I would also agree we deal with on a regular basis, interacting with individuals who have
04:08 no form of identification that we know who they are. Mr. Bryant.
04:11 Yes, we trust the information being provided to us by Director Wray and so I'm in agreement with
04:20 it. Do you feel that the federal government is giving you enough in the terms or in the
04:27 area of intelligence to be able to protect your jurisdictions to the best of your ability
04:36 in light of the fact that Director Wray believes that there is a
04:39 grave threat to the homeland from terrorists unknown to us?
04:44 Go ahead, one at a time. Yes, sir. We're not getting all the information that would be helpful.
04:57 The federal government is apparently unable to tell us how many immigrants are coming to Tennessee,
05:05 where they're going in the state, where they came from. We don't have that information.
05:10 So if I don't even know how many are coming and where they're from,
05:16 then how can I begin to understand what kind of threat they pose to my state?
05:24 We have a good relationship with the federal counterparts and the information we get is more
05:29 kind of personal contact, but I would say that as always that communication could be better.
05:33 We're probably a little bit more different in that we have issues with our local officials
05:41 that tend to try to restrict our use of information that is trying to be
05:46 passed on to us or accessible to us.
05:50 Having a strong relationship with our federal partners is essential to what we do. However,
05:55 we do recognize that there's a level of continuous challenges around intelligence and information.
06:01 Thank you again for your service and I yield back.