West Virginia State Democratic Party

West Virginia Democratic Party Platform

Law and Order

The West Virginia Democratic Party regards an individual's right to personal safety as a sacred right. The quality of life in West Virginia is improved as a result of the state having a low crime rate. This serves as a tribute to the law enforcement agencies, the police and the deep seated ethical quality of West Virginians.

Dangerous criminals must not be permitted to remain on the streets to prey on innocent victims. We support funding for jails and prisons to incarcerate those individuals who have demonstrated that they cannot live in our society.

The Democratic Party recognizes that every day there are increasing demands placed on law enforcement, especially after September 11, 2001. Therefore, Democrats are for equal funding for Homeland Security. West Virginia is as vital a state as any other in the United States. Under the Bush administration, however, West Virginia will be held to the same regulations as other states, but will be provided with less funding. The Democrats will fight to be sure West Virginia is safe from terrorists.

With federal funding already in place, efforts will center on providing additional state funding to make each officer the best that he or she can be. This will involve increased training opportunities for law enforcement. Education is the key to any defense. This training should cover not only homeland security and terrorism, but other issues faced by law enforcement on a daily basis.

The Democratic Party will make efforts to insure that all West Virginia law enforcement officers on the municipal, county and state level, enjoy wages commensurate with the duties that they perform on a daily basis. This would include better wages for the correctional officers and support staff throughout the correctional facilities, regional jails and detention facilities in the state.

The Democrats are also aware of the need for additional state troopers. At present, we have 663 state troopers protecting the citizens, but this number needs to be increased to 800. This cannot be accomplished through hiring alone; there must also be retention. The troopers Plan B retirement has the highest employee contribution (12 percent) of any of the surrounding state police organizations or West Virginia police organizations (county and city) but the highest minimum retirement age (55). West Virginia county and city police officers can retire at age 50. The surrounding state police agencies have a minimum retirement age of 50 or less. Troopers are also placed on call to respond to day-to-day calls for police service for extended periods of time and their movements are restricted without salary compensation.

The Democratic Party recognizes that troopers need to be compensated if they are placed on call. In such cases he or she is not free to use the time off work as their own to spend with their family due to the restricted movements and the high level of properness a trooper must maintain if called to duty.

The state police budgeted overtime per trooper has stayed the same since 1980. This is unacceptable. Crime does not stop at shift change. Therefore, troopers need to have the flexibility to keep working on crimes while leads are hot and witnesses are fresh and not go off work or donate hours. Troopers need an increase in the budget overtime to best serve the people of this state. We believe that retaining troopers through Plan B improvements, competitive salaries, hiring more troopers compensation for on call time and increasing the state police overtime budget will help the state to retain the title of the lowest crime rate in the nation.

Further, the Democratic Party supports studies to determine the feasibility of providing full health benefits to officers and their families throughout the state and not just in counties able to afford benefits. Additional funding will be made available to hire additional officers throughout the state. Also, the retirement of every law enforcement officer will be protected.

Finally, there need to be funds made available for a statewide radio system. Interoperability is very important in the event of a disaster or terrorist incident. With this radio system, the agencies and jurisdictions will have the capability to communicate statewide, especially with the new joint task forces and regional response teams already put in place.

The West Virginia Democratic Party recommits itself to support law enforcement personnel and their families.