During National Police Week, Rep. Josh Harder (CA-09) and David Valadao (CA-21) introduced bipartisan legislation to tackle high early retirement rates in law enforcement by increasing benefits for officers. The Providing Child Care for Police Officers Act that the pair offered on May 16 expands child care benefits and invests in new child care facilities to hire and retain more working parents in law enforcement.

Child care shortages hit law enforcement hard:

Police staffing across California is at the lowest point in decades, especially in rural communities.

Regardless of industry, the majority of working parents point to lack of child care access as the reason for leaving their employment.

California ranks in the top five states with highest child care costs, and three in five residents live in a child care desert.

“This is a no-brainer – keeping our families safe starts by recruiting and retaining top-tier police officers,” said Rep. Harder. “Making sure our officers have access to quality, affordable child care means we increase the pool of talented, diverse recruits and keeps officers on the streets protecting our communities.”

The legislation hopes to help communities hire and retain more working parents in law enforcement by:

Expanding child care benefits to new and existing officers through a $24 million pilot program to supply grants to law enforcement agencies.

Building new child care facilities by authorizing local agencies to construct or operate new centers for police departments’ exclusive use.

Prioritizing small agencies by setting aside 20 percent of the total grant funding for police departments employing fewer than 200 officers.

“Our Central Valley police departments continue to face staffing shortages, and we need real solutions to support the people who put their lives on the line to keep us safe,” said Rep. Valadao. “By making child care more accessible for officers working long, irregular hours, this bipartisan bill reduces a major barrier for working parents in law enforcement and helps improve public safety in our communities.”