US ATTORNEY MORENO MEETS WITH CORPUS CHRISTI AREA LAW ENFORCEMENT LEADERS ABOUT OFFICER SAFETY

(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) - As part of the Attorney General’s (AG) Law Enforcement Officer Safety Initiative, U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno met with various law enforcement agency heads in Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Calhoun, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio and Victoria Counties to discuss the most serious threats currently facing our officers and ways to protect and enhance their safety.

The AG's initiative was launched in March 2011 in response to the dramatic rise in the number of federal, state and local officers killed in the line of duty during the previous 15 months. Last year, 2010, was one of the deadliest years on record for law enforcement in nearly two decades when 56 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. Even worse, if this tragic trend were to continue, the number of deaths of law enforcement officers killed in 2011 may surpass that of 2010.

In a meeting held today at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, U.S. Attorney Moreno met with various city, school district and university police chiefs, sheriffs, constables, district attorneys as well as the Corpus Christi International Airport Public Safety Department, Port of Corpus Christi, Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. Topics discussed during the meeting included the potential threats faced by officers and ways to prevent and protect personnel. The discussion included the use to the extent possible of available deconfliction services, which allow officers, prior to conducting enforcement operations, to determine if other agencies are investigating or planning to conduct enforcement operations on the same target, location, or event, thereby lessening the chance of tragic “blue-on-blue” encounters.

U.S. Attorney Moreno also shared information regarding available Department of Justice resource programs including VALOR, a national law enforcement training and technical assistance program whose objective is to train officers to identify, prevent and survive violent encounters by establishing a culture of attentive vigilance and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program, which provides sworn officers with bullet and stab-resistant body armor.

Following today's meeting, U.S. Attorney Moreno extended his thanks to Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi for hosting the meeting and added, “Law enforcement officers and agents put their lives on the line for us every day. We, in turn, want to ensure we’re doing everything we can to make their jobs safer. It’s a small price to pay for the great sacrifice they, and their families, make to secure our communities.”

U.S. Attorney has also held meetings with Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville, Texas, area law enforcement officials and a similar meeting is planned for the counties constituting the Galveston and Houston Divisions of the district as well. 

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