Presidential Document2023-10664
Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 2023
Primary source
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Published
May 17, 2023
Signed
May 12, 2023
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 95 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 31461-31463]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-10664]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 95 / Wednesday, May 17, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 31461]]
Proclamation 10579 of May 12, 2023
Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every day when law enforcement officers pin on their
badges, they make an extraordinary commitment to the
American people: to rush toward danger regardless of
the risk and to faithfully stand up for the rule of
law. Across our neighborhoods, towns, and cities, they
put themselves in harm's way, hoping to return home
safely to their families. On Peace Officers Memorial
Day and during Police Week, we celebrate the remarkable
courage of our law enforcement community and honor the
fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to
protect their fellow Americans.
As a Nation, we expect a lot from our law enforcement
officers. They save lives by keeping our roads,
subways, and highways safe and responding to domestic
violence incidents and natural disasters. We ask them
to ensure public safety, build trust within our
neighborhoods, and protect the well-being of our
communities. Too often, they are also called upon to
respond to mass shootings, drug overdoses, mental
health crises, and more. Being a law enforcement
officer is not just what they do; it is who they are.
The same is true for their families, who sacrifice
alongside these heroic Americans. It takes a special
person to marry or be the child of a law enforcement
officer--knowing the uncertainty as their loved one
walks out the door and dreading the possibility of
receiving that phone call.
No memorial can ever fill the void left in the hearts
of those who have lost a loved one in the line of duty.
But their sacrifices in full service to their
communities and to our Nation will never be forgotten.
We will continue to honor their memories with actions
that help keep our law enforcement officers and
communities safe from harm.
When I took office at the height of the pandemic,
State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement
budgets were shrinking. Some agencies were facing their
lowest staffing levels in decades, undermining their
ability to perform their jobs. That is why we provided
crucial funding to help police departments build new
training facilities, recruit new personnel, and give
officers a raise. I also expanded benefits for first
responders who were disabled in the line of duty and
their families. And I signed laws improving officer
wellness by expanding critical mental health resources
to address the physical and emotional trauma that so
many members of our law enforcement community
experience.
Meanwhile, I have taken steps to keep law enforcement
officers safer on the job by signing the most sweeping
gun safety law in nearly three decades. It helps keep
more guns out of the hands of dangerous people,
including by broadening restrictions on domestic
abusers, which is critical because domestic violence
calls can often turn deadly for police. This law also
supports crisis interventions, including extreme risk
protection orders, and provides a billion dollars to
address the mental health crisis in America. We are
also strengthening background checks for 18 to 20-year-
olds trying to purchase guns, helping prosecutors crack
down on illegal gun sales, and reining in ghost guns
that police across the country are increasingly finding
at crime scenes.
[[Page 31462]]
As I have often said, when it comes to keeping our
communities safe, the answer is not to defund the
police. It is to fund them with the resources and
training they need to protect and serve our communities
and to build trust with the American public. My Safer
America Plan calls on the Congress to invest in
recruiting, hiring, and training more than 100,000
additional officers for effective, accountable
community policing, consistent with the standards of my
policing Executive Order. My plan also invests in
programs that send social workers and other
professionals to respond to calls that should not be
the responsibility of law enforcement. And it invests
$5 billion in proven crime-prevention strategies like
community violence interruption. We must not accept the
false choice between public safety and public trust;
they are two sides of the same coin.
At the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington,
D.C., there is a quote engraved on the wall that reads,
``It is not how these officers died that made them
heroes, it is how they lived.'' Today, during this
week, and year-round, we express our gratitude for the
courageous women and men of our Nation's law
enforcement community. We honor the memory of the
members who made the ultimate sacrifice and pray for
their families. And we recommit ourselves to the sacred
task of creating a safer and more just Nation for all
Americans.
By a joint resolution approved October 1, 1962, as
amended (76 Stat. 676), and by Public Law 103-322, as
amended (36 U.S.C. 136-137), the President has been
authorized and requested to designate May 15 of each
year as ``Peace Officers Memorial Day'' and the week in
which it falls as ``Police Week.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May
15, 2023, as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 14
through May 20, 2023, as Police Week. I call upon all
Americans to observe these events with appropriate
ceremonies and activities and salute our Nation's brave
law enforcement officers and remember their peace
officer brothers and sisters who have given their last
full measure of devotion in the line of duty. I also
call on the Governors of the United States and its
Territories, and appropriate officials of all units of
government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-
staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day. I further
encourage all Americans to display the flag at half-
staff from their homes and businesses on that day.
[[Page 31463]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-10664
Filed 5-16-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 17, 2023.
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