Rob Cowburn, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania, participated in the Key Issues in Criminal Justice for a Better Future forum sponsored by Americans for Prosperity and held at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown’s John P. Murtha Center for Public Service and National Competitiveness.
Other participants included Americans for Prosperity State Director Ashley Klingensmith, R Street Institute senior fellow for criminal justice and civil liberties Christi Smith, state Rep. Jim Rigby (R-Ferndale), and state Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr. (R-Richland Township).
Cowburn called for society to “understand what the role of government ought to be, what the police can offer.”
“We need to get them back in our communities, walking beats, not serving this investigatory, at-odds relationship with the communities they serve,” he said.
Cowburn feels law enforcement has expanded into many areas where it does not belong, including dealing with non- violent consensual acts.
“When you make more and more things crimes, you’re going to have more and more crime,” he said. “If we get policing and criminal justice and the whole concept of what it’s supposed to serve back to protecting liberty and property and investigating crime after it happens, then we would probably need less, but higher-quality, well-trained investigative officers, rather than the army of patrol officers out there looking for a plant in someone’s car.”
You can read more about the forum here.
