Lee Holland, corporation vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, has been a Montgomery County Police officer for 13 years and most recently served in the Germantown area.
Holland took time to reflect on the recent death of George Floyd Jr. after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes as he lay handcuffed on the ground and the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept the nation. He also spoke about Montgomery County incidents and urged everyone to understand that not all officers are like the one who is charged with killing Floyd.
Police morale is low, he said, noting, “Recruitment is down and has been for the past five years.” Only nine people were accepted into the new class of recruits although there are 22 positions that need to be filled, he said.
“The vocal support of the community is just not there,” Holland said, adding that it used to be much stronger. Now, police officers keep seeing social media posts about the need to change how policing is done and how bad police officers are.
“We are all human,” Holland said of his fellow police officers.
