Law Enforcement in PA Agrees: High-Quality Pre-K is Crime Prevention

Law enforcement leaders know that one of the best ways to keep young people from committing crime later on is to make sure they have a foundation for success in their earliest years. By providing access to high-quality early education for kids today, we can see less crime and incarceration in the future while reaping millions in taxpayer savings and other economic benefits.

This is why Pennsylvania’s century-old law enforcement associations–the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, the Pennsylvania Sheriffs’ Association, and the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association–have partnered with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids for almost 20 years in supporting greater access to high-quality pre-kindergarten in order to help break the generational cycle of crime.

Pennsylvania’s law enforcement leaders believe that government’s most fundamental responsibility is to protect the public safety. Government cannot fully meet this responsibility, however, without making sure that Pennsylvania’s most at-risk children have access to interventions that will help form the foundations of productive and law-abiding lives.

We have got a choice today, and it boils down to dollars and common sense. If we invest in our kids today, we will pay far less for the costs of crime and lack of educational success in the years to come. That’s being “smart” on crime.