Most people regard inflation, illegal immigration, healthcare, and abortion as the top issues of this election. I agree that those are all important. However, as a proud American who has spent my entire adult life as a law enforcement professional, I know there is one issue that affects all of us, regardless of political persuasion, and it should be on every voter’s mind when we cast our votes: public safety.

Many of the candidates who have asked for our vote have forgotten that the No. 1 responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are only pipe dreams if law enforcement, our criminal justice system, and our elected leaders cannot ensure the safety and security of our citizens.

I take this position as someone who has seen firsthand the devastating impact that the “defund the police” movement has had on law enforcement agencies and communities across the country. Let us not forget that many of our elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels enthusiastically embraced, promoted, and implemented the most radical parts of the defund the police agenda into their public safety practices and policies.

Just consider that soon after George Floyd’s death in 2020, elected officials in cities across America reacted in knee-jerk fashion and voted to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from police budgets. The result was fewer police officers, a 5% or 40,000-officer decrease between 2019 and 2022, and more crime.

In fact, homicides and other crimes in our nation have soared over the past few years to levels not seen since the 1990s. Violent crime committed by strangers in 2022 rose by 37% in urban areas, 73% in the suburbs, and 102% in rural areas, according to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey. Nationwide, homicides were up 21.5% and aggravated assaults were up 9% when comparing 2023 numbers to 2019, according to a violent crime survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Failure to prosecute lesser crimes, no cash bail, and other pro-criminal bail reform policies have led to a revolving-door criminal justice system that does not hold criminals accountable. In Washington, D.C., the average homicide suspect last year had been arrested 11 times prior to committing the murder. In Houston, the police union leader, Ray Hunt, recently said, “I have never in my lifetime … seen this many suspected murderers and capital murderers who are walking the streets of Houston out on multiple bonds.”

Many school districts abolished their school resource officer programs in 2020 as a result of the defund the police movement. The number of school shootings and guns seized in schools has skyrocketed ever since. There were 188 school shootings with casualties at U.S. public and private elementary and high schools in the 2021-22 school year, a record high and more than double the 93 in the 2020-21 school year. The value of school resource officers was on full display recently in Georgia when a student at Apalachee High School killed four people and injured nine others before two highly trained school resource officers at the school quickly responded and forced the shooter to surrender.

Drug overdose deaths in 2022 surpassed 100,000, a record number, largely because so much fentanyl has been easily smuggled across our porous southern border and soft-on-crime prosecutors have failed to prosecute drug crimes aggressively.

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So, when voting for your state and local leaders, ask yourself, “Who favors increased police funding, more officers, safer schools, and tougher enforcement of criminal laws?” When voting for federal officials, ask yourself, “Who will tighten our southern border, crack down on drug smugglers, hold state and local prosecutors accountable, and increase federal funding to fight crime?” Or more succinctly, ask yourself, “Will my vote make my community and my country safer?”

Over the last several years, I have posed a simple question to many: “Do you feel safe?” I am sorry to say that the overwhelming response has been, “No.” On Nov. 5, we all have an opportunity to do something about it and vote for candidates who will fight to restore public safety.

Louis Quijas serves on the Law Enforcement Advisory Council of Citizens Behind the Badge. He previously served in the Kansas City, Missouri, and High Point police departments, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security.