Says, ‘It’s not enough to just say we ‘Back the Blue’… ‘I am proud to lend my support’
LITTLE ROCK – On Friday, Lt. Governor Tim Griffin endorsed Governor Hutchinson’s recommended $7.4 million boost to the Arkansas State Police budget in order to increase the pay of state troopers. The proposal would increase both the starting pay for new troopers as well as those with seniority. These pay increases would make Arkansas’s state troopers some of the highest paid troopers in our geographic region.
Griffin released the following statement in conjunction with his endorsement of the plan:
“It’s not enough to just say we ‘Back the Blue.’ We need to prioritize their training, retention, and compensation so that we have the absolute best law enforcement officers possible. This is especially true given that Arkansas is experiencing a historic wave of violent crime. The radical ‘Defund the Police’ movement has denigrated the law enforcement profession, which has emboldened criminals, decreased the morale of those serving in law enforcement, and made it harder to recruit new law enforcement officers. Boosting their pay is a commonsense move, and I am proud to lend my support.”
About Lt. Governor Tim Griffin
He was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas on November 4, 214 and was re-elected for his second four-year term on November 6, 2018. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. For the 113th Congress, he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, and attended graduate school at Oxford University. Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault in Mosul, Iraq. He is currently serving as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 81st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Prior to his current post, Griffin served as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a senior legislative advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Colonel Griffin holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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