WHEREAS, since September 11th, 2001 over 461,000 National Guard and Reserve personnel have deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) (Afghanistan) or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in addition to over 1,225,000 active military personnel; and

WHEREAS, deployments of Active, Reserve, and National Guard service members to OEF and OIF are expected to continue through 2010 and possibly beyond; and WHEREAS, thousands of Active, Reserve, and National Guard service members have returned to their departments and agencies to resume their law enforcement careers:

WHEREAS, thousands of law enforcement agencies remain challenged to properly transition or reintegrate these veterans back to sworn status by having insufficient plans, training, policies, and procedures affecting all phases of pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment strategies; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement leadership recognizes that more research is required to gauge the effectiveness of current policies and procedures toward disabled veterans and those who have served multiple combat tours; and

WHEREAS, the International Association of Chiefs of Police recognizes the significance of the efforts of the law enforcement community to develop new veteran policies and procedures to successfully reintegrate veterans into their departments and therefore endorses the Employing Returning Combat Veterans as Police Officers project (V2C) and their future efforts; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police duly assembled at its 116th Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado calls for all federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and departments to continue to provide support to returning combat veterans in their successful transition back to their departments; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IACP calls upon all federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and departments to continue to provide support to those returning veterans who seek employment with those agencies and departments; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IACP calls upon IACP to fully support law enforcement community research into the effectiveness of current and future procedures toward disabled veterans and those who have served multiple combat tours; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IACP calls upon federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to consider those honorably serving disabled veterans for sworn and unsworn positions within their departments so they may continue to contribute their experience and expertise to the success of their law enforcement agency until retirement eligible.

Submitted by: Civil Law Enforcement/Military Cooperation Committee

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