U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, 39, spoke with Poplar Bluff community leaders and local officials Thursday morning during a trip to the area.
Hawley (R-Missouri) met with a group of approximately 30 community leaders at the Poplar Bluff Police Station, where he touched on topics ranging from the recent shooting of a Carter County deputy to the areas he feels Congress should focus on.
Last Friday, two members of law enforcement were shot while attempting to serve a Van Buren man with an eviction notice. Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Caleb McCoy and Carter County Deputy Brigg Pierson were injured during the incident. Pierson was shot multiple times and flown to St. Louis for medical attention. McCoy was shot once and taken to a local hospital for treatment before being released Friday afternoon.
Hawley said he called the sheriff, who was at the hospital, Saturday morning to check on Pierson.
Hawley praised Sheriff Richard Stephen for showing that concern and care for his officers.
“This is everyday courage,” Hawley said. “For our officers, veterans and so many other people too, this is the kind of courage they demonstrate everyday and I think it’s sobering but it’s a great opportunity for us to say ‘hey, thank you for what you do.’”
Looking at the national level, Hawley talked about a bipartisan bill that he co-wrote and helped push through Congress and get signed into law. It is focused on efforts to increase the resources available to law enforcement.
Hawley said the law makes available funding to local law enforcement agencies for services such as post trauma, counseling and crisis services. He said part of the reason behind this law came from when he found out that suicide is the number one cause of death for law enforcement officers.
“Part of the reason for that is that a lot of local law enforcement doesn’t have the resources to help these officers,” he said. “They are exposed to the most unbelievable things. Just the day to day work is incredibly stressful. How do you work through that? A lot of the time they don’t have resources and I wanted to help with that.”
Another national issue Hawley said he’s been focused on is internet privacy and the collection of data by “big tech companies” such as Google and Facebook. Hawley spoke about tech companies collecting information such as the user’s location, activity patterns and purchases.
In response to the question of such disclosures being in the terms of service for websites, Hawley said a lot of the time, it isn’t, and even when it is, people aren’t given the option to opt out of it.
“Lets just give everybody the ability to say ‘don’t track me,’” Hawley said. “I’m going to click a button right there and say that you can’t track me. If you want to track me, maybe you want to pay me something for it or give me a special service in exchange. But the point is, we should have control of our information, not the tech companies.”