Cornyn on de-escalation training act: 'We want to keep our law enforcement officials as long as we can'

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was in Houston on Tuesday to discuss his new Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act, per reports from Houston-based media outlets. 

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner and a host of community leaders joined the Lone Star State’s senior senator to talk about the legislation he authored after the death of George Floyd. 

President Joe Biden signed the act into law late last year.

According to Houston FOX affiliate KRIV, the law earmarks $124 million in federal funding for law enforcement agencies to use in de-escalation training, most notably in handling individuals experiencing mental health crises. 

"This is a tough job and recruiting is not easy because it is a dangerous job, can be a dangerous job," Cornyn said, KRIV reported. "And we want to keep our law enforcement officials who are on the job now. We want to keep them as long as we can." 

The station reported aside from officer retention, the law additionally seeks to decrease the number of officer-involved deaths.

Finner said among the over one million calls his department fields every year, at least 50,000 of them pertain to an incident involving someone in the throes of a mental health crisis, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported. 

KTRK reported that the Houston Police Department (HPD) responded to a call on Saturday in which a 26-year-old man in crisis allegedly attacked two officers with a knife. 

One of the officers fatally shot the man, whose family asserted HPD could’ve prevented the incident, the station reported.

KRIV reported that during the same roundtable discussion, Houston officials touched on the progress of the nearly three-year-old Task Force on Police Reform. 

The leaders said that the task force appointed by Turner has supported HPD’s increased de-escalation training efforts. 

After Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody, Cornyn, Turner and local officials got together to seek how the relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve could improve, Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported.