Ensuring Safe Communities

Keeping our communities safe means preventing crime, protecting victims, and standing with those who answer the call.

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their home, at school, on our roads, and in their community. As a military spouse, I have a deep appreciation for those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others. I have consistently supported investments in our police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and other first responders, including funding for police aid, emergency medical services, and Anne Arundel County’s Joint 911 Public Safety Center.

I have also worked to give law enforcement and first responders better tools to keep us safe. I sponsored legislation to provide public safety officials with standardized school maps so they can respond more quickly during an emergency, strengthened enforcement against dangerous boating under the influence, and supported tougher laws addressing reckless driving and organized retail theft. I have also fought to strengthen protections for victims and survivors, including efforts to address the backlog of untested sexual assault kits and improve how schools prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.

Reducing gun violence remains an important part of keeping our communities safe. I have supported commonsense measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands, promote safe firearm storage, and invest in violence prevention.

Public safety also means preventing crises before they become tragedies. That is why I have worked to expand behavioral health and substance-use treatment, strengthen crisis-response services, and invest in programs that address the underlying causes of violence while holding people accountable when they break the law.

Keeping our communities safe requires more than slogans. It requires supporting the people who answer the call in an emergency, giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need, protecting victims, preventing violence, and investing in solutions that make our neighborhoods safer.