Washington — Crime is a focal point of former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, and he and Vice President Kamala Harris have both been working to assume the mantle of the tough-on-crime candidate.
Violent crime and property crime dropped overall last year, and the decline in the murder rate from 2022 to 2023 represents the largest drop in the last two decades, according to data from more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies released by the FBI in September.
But that hasn’t stopped Trump from claiming U.S. cities are in decline and violence is rampant. Harris, meanwhile, has highlighted her experience as a former prosecutor in California and the state’s attorney general as she seeks to show voters that she has experience targeting violent offenders.
Trump casts himself as the “law and order” candidate
The Republican presidential nominee repeatedly casts himself as the “law and order” candidate and while on the campaign trail has called for police officers to be entitled to “immunity from prosecution.”
Trump laid out his “plan to restore law and order” in February 2023, which he said includes a “record investment in hiring, retention and training” for police officers nationwide and bolstering liability protections for law enforcement. The former president said he will condition Justice Department grants and federal funding on the use of “stop and frisk” and other tactics by local law enforcement agencies.
He also pledged to “send in federal assets” like the National Guard to restore “law and order” in cities.
Indemnifying police
In recent months, Trump has stepped up his pledges to protect law enforcement, saying during a tele-rally in June that his administration would indemnify police officers.
A 2014 study on indemnification practices in 44 of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies and 37 small and mid-sized agencies found that police are almost always indemnified, that is, not held financially responsible for settlements and judgments in misconduct cases. The study from UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz found that between 2006 and 2011, governments paid roughly 99.98% of the money that plaintiffs recovered in lawsuits accusing police of civil rights violations.
During a September speech accepting the endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest organization of law enforcement officers, Trump called for giving back “power and respect” to police and has suggested “one rough hour” of a law enforcement response would tamp down on crime.
“One rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately,” he told a crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania, last month.
Federal law enforcement and migrants
Trump has repeatedly floated using federal law enforcement resources to address migrants crossing the U.S-Mexico border. During a July 2023 speech, he called for shifting “massive portions of the existing federal law enforcement apparatus” — parts of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations — to focus on immigration.
Trump says he’d pardon Jan. 6 defendants
While Trump has painted himself as the pro-law enforcement candidate, he has said he would pardon defendants who were convicted or pleaded guilty for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The Republican presidential nominee has claimed they were “convicted by a very tough system” and called Jan. 6 rioters “hostages” and “political prisoners.”
Nearly 150 police officers were injured on Jan. 6, and protesters carried firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, bear spray and tomahawk axes.
In April 2023, he also called on Republicans in Congress to strip the Justice Department and FBI of their funding after he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York. The former president was found guilty on all counts by a jury in May.
Harris focuses on experience as a prosecutor
Harris has played up her experience as a former prosecutor, highlighting her work cracking down on violent offenders, drug traffickers and banks over their mortgage foreclosure practices. She has also sought to draw distinctions between her background in law enforcement with Trump, who was convicted in May and faces federal charges in two separate cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women; fraudsters who ripped off consumers; cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said at a campaign event in Atlanta in July. “So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
While serving as the district attorney in San Francisco, Harris spearheaded a law enforcement training program on procedural justice and implicit bias, which was designed to strengthen trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
On police misconduct, qualified immunity, defunding the police
During her time representing California in the Senate, she was a co-sponsor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which aimed to address police misconduct in the wake of Floyd’s death in May 2020. The measure would restrict the use of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields law enforcement officers from liability, ban no-knock warrants in drug cases and chokeholds, and require federal law enforcement officers to wear body cameras, among other changes.
As vice president, Harris has repeatedly called on Congress to pass the measure.
Also, while serving alongside President Biden, the administration has enacted the American Rescue Plan, which included funding for public safety and retaining and hiring police officers.
“The only candidate running for president who has ever advocated for defunding the police or proposed cutting funding for law enforcement is convicted felon Donald Trump,” said James Singer, spokesperson for the Harris campaign. “Vice President Harris spent years prosecuting criminals and getting justice for victims, and has supported increased funding to keep our communities safe and hold convicted felons like Trump accountable – which is why America is currently seeing a near 50-year low in violent crime.”
After Floyd’s death, the vice president called for “reimagining how we do public safety in America” and a conversation about “redirecting resources” from police to other government functions such as the public education system and social services.
But four years later, during a campaign stop in Las Vegas last month, Harris said that if elected, she would double resources for the Justice Department to target transnational cartels and take action to stop fentanyl flowing into the country.
After Harris was selected as Mr. Biden’s running mate in October 2020, his campaign said neither of the two Democrats supported defunding the police. Sabrina Singh, who was serving as press secretary to Harris at the time, said she has backed boosting funding to police departments and for community policing.
