Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday summed up his philosophy in a single sentence during a Luzerne County visit Thursday afternoon.
"If our communities aren't safe then nothing else matters," Sunday told reporters at the county courthouse following a meeting with District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce, local law enforcement representatives and elected officials.
They met to discuss concerns about policing and public safety — concerns Sunday, as a former York County DA, understands first-hand.
"We had a lot of a lot of very thoughtful discussions today surrounding ... gun violence, gang violence ... we talked about the the terrible issues with regard to substance abuse, in particular fentanyl facing the community," Sunday said.
They also discussed juvenile crime, mental health issues, drug sales on the dark web and the struggles communities face in recruiting and retaining police officers.
"We have to dig into it. We have to do everything in our power," Sunday said of police staffing struggles. "When someone calls 911, someone shows up to your house to help, and we have to make sure it always stays that way."
'A bipartisan issue'
Sunday, 49, served as York County DA from 2018 until this year. He was elected attorney general in November and took office in January.
Sunday and Sanguedolce were joined in a post-meeting press conference by U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, state Sen. Lisa Baker, and state Rep. Brenda Pugh, all of whom are Luzerne County Republicans.
"We're all Republicans sitting up here, but this is a pretty clearly bipartisan issue," Sanguedolce said, adding that Lackawanna County DA Brian Gallagher, a Democrat, was unable to attend due to a homicide hearing. And, Sanguedolce added, state Sen. Marty Flynn, also a Democrat, has been supportive of local law enforcement's concerns.
"There are people on both sides of the aisle supporting the police, and I think that's an important message as well," Sanguedolce said.
Task force funding discussed
Baker said Thursday's discussion also included a commitment from Sunday to examine how county drug task forces are funded.
"That funding formula has not been modified for more than 30 years, and regionally, Sam and the DAs here in Northeastern Pennsylvania have been reaching out to say we need to update that and modernize it to address the fentanyl crisis," Baker said. "We appreciate the general's commitment to work with us to evaluate it, to look at how best we can fund that to support the work that is necessary on the streets."
It's a discussion that was familiar to Sunday.
"When I was a DA, I also was advocating for this very same thing," he said.
"When you're a district attorney, you have two choices: You can have the Attorney General's Office come in and run a drug task force, or you can choose to run it yourself. If you choose to run it yourself, then there's money that you receive from the state to help fund it," Sunday said.
"The funding formula to determine the amount of money that the district attorney's office receives hasn't changed since 1995 and that's outrageous," he said. "And so now that I'm in a position to do something about it, this was one of the things on day like two that I spoke with my team about to figure out what we can do to get this up to speed and up to date."
Drug task force officers throughout the state investigate and arrest drug dealers, Sunday said, "but they are also at the tip of the spear with regard to so many other societal crimes," including human trafficking, organized crime and mental health issues.
Police staffing
Sunday said the key to understanding falling numbers of police recruits is starting at the beginning of the pipeline.
"Well, I think to begin with, we have to look at the root causes and understand why aren't people deciding to go to the police academy," he said.
"One of the issues that I have seen as a district attorney and now as Attorney General is the issue of what we've placed on the police to do," he said. "We have this expectation in society the police officers are counselors, domestic violence counselors, mental health counselors, substance abuse counselors, that they have to be all things to all people — oftentimes, you know, 15 times in an eight-hour shift."
"And so we have to do everything we can, number one, to get them the support that they need to be able to accomplish the task that we ask of them," Sunday said. "And so that's one thing on the state level that we can work on."
Bresnahan said Thursday's discussion with representatives of local police departments helped lawmakers at the state and federal levels better understand those concerns.
"What we did today during our discussion was to hear from the people that are on the front line," he said.
Bresnahan acknowledged that the staffing challenges are an issue that needs to be addressed. He also suggested that technology can help supplement the work of the officers departments do have.
"The license plate detection systems, the front camera systems, for example. They work very well in the Hazleton area, but unfortunately, they are expensive pieces of technology," Bresnahan said, adding that federal investment may be able to assist in that regard.
State funding?
With a $51.5 billion state budget proposal from Gov. Josh Shapiro pending in Harrisburg, does that plan have enough for law enforcement needs?
Republicans earlier this year expressed support for some of Shapiro's spending priorities, if not the amount he wants to spend.
Baker is among those who have concerns about his proposed spending overall.
The senator on Thursday said she could not specifically speak to line-item funding for law enforcement without having the budget immediately at hand.
But Baker acknowledged Pennsylvania State Police and other law enforcement items are obviously in the document, and she is concerned about how Shapiro will manage to fulfill budget promises given the governor's intention to rely on legalizing recreational marijuana as a revenue generator.
His administration claims legalization would generate $250 million annually and $1.3 billion over the first five years.
As previously reported, this budget proposal includes $15.6 million from an adult-use cannabis tax, $11.4 million from the sales and use tax on retail sales of cannabis and $509.5 million from license fees.
But all that would require a bill to be passed and reach the governor's desk by December, and neither side of the state legislature has introduced an adult use bill this year.
Baker has her doubts that will happen.
"I don't personally believe that's the way we should be funding our state budget, and so that's an area where I have great concern," she said.
