Buckeye Reporter

A recent endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris by a national law enforcement group has sparked controversy and raised questions about the group's legitimacy and intentions. USA Today reported on Monday that "a group of national law enforcement leaders have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris weeks after the National Fraternal Order of Police backed former President Donald Trump."

The endorsing organization, Police Leaders for Community Safety, describes itself as “a new force in the policy debates around policing, crime and public safety issues.” However, critics question how this aligns with Harris's past support for defunding police.

The group's board includes Chair Sue Riseling, who has shared posts from Occupy Democrats, Joe Biden, and Robert Reich. This has led some to label the group as politically biased. An X poster named Futurist suggested that the endorsement is an orchestrated operation to falsely bolster Harris’s candidacy.

Police Leaders for Community Safety advocates for stricter gun control measures. They call on Congress to enact laws to keep guns out of dangerous hands, support universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders (ERPO), regulation of military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and preventing untraceable 'ghost' guns.

They also advocate for aggressive prosecution of gun crimes and proper funding for law enforcement agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and research on gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Despite these stated goals, questions remain about who funds Police Leaders for Community Safety. Their website is registered through a proxy service, and they do not appear on Candid’s Guidestar nonprofit reporting site. The organization is listed as a “Foreign Non-Stock Corporation” in Wisconsin corporate records but organized under Delaware law with an address linked to a UPS store in Madison.

Connections between Police Leaders for Community Safety and other anti-gun groups are speculated but not confirmed. The registered agent for both this group and Everytown Federal Victory Fund is Corporation Trust Company in Wilmington — a common registration service provider.

Attempts to obtain more detailed information about their officers or directors were met with delays due to high volumes of requests at Delaware’s Department of Corporations.

Media coverage predominantly portrays the endorsement positively without delving into these complexities. Conservative outlets like Invest USA have labeled it as deceptive: “Harris endorsement by ‘police leaders’ group is really a bait-and-switch by radical liberal activists,” while PJ Media called it “a sham.”

As this story unfolds, it remains clear that significant resources back Police Leaders for Community Safety while maintaining secrecy about their true origins.