Seated for a media appearance Thursday at the Luzerne County Courthouse are, from left: Rep. Brenda Pugh, Sen. Lisa Baker, Attorney General Dave Sunday, Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce.
Sam Zavada | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday visited with local officials and law enforcement officers Thursday at the Luzerne County Courthouse. The closed conversation and press conference that followed focused on strengthening modern policing.
Joining Sunday at the press conference portion of the event were Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Dallas Township; Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce; Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township; and Rep. Brenda Pugh, R-Dallas Township.
Sunday, who previously served as the district attorney in York County, detailed several talking points that emerged during the closed meeting. He said that he, his fellow elected officials, and the local law enforcement community in attendance discussed gun and gang violence, juvenile incarceration rates and mental health.
The closed meeting lasted about 45 minutes.
Sunday and the other press conference attendees noted that one of the other main discussion points at the closed meeting was police recruitment and the challenges modern forces face in finding new professionals to join their ranks.
“It is a huge, huge crisis that people don’t want to be police officers anymore, and it’s something we have to address,” Sunday said.
In particular, Sunday pointed to added responsibilities officers face while on the job, some of which they might not be equipped to take on.
“We have this expectation in society that police officers are counselors — domestic violence counselors, mental health counselors, substance abuse counselors,” Sunday said. “They have to be all things to all people, oftentimes 15 times in an eight-hour shift.”
The panel was in agreement on the first step in helping make life easier for police officers. A show of public support, the group said, can go a long way. Bresnahan called for the police to be humanized, noting that local police departments are made up of the friends and neighbors of the community they serve.
Funding was also discussed at the press conference. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget calls for millions of dollars in additional funding for public safety programs. Before becoming governor in 2023, Shapiro was the attorney general of Pennsylvania — the seat now held by Sunday.
Baker said that while she supports the funding for public safety, she takes issue with Shapiro’s proposals to use the legalization of marijuana as a primary funding source for the budget.
Because the closed meeting lasted less than an hour, Sunday clarified that the discussions in Luzerne County are just a small snippet of the larger discussions between the press conference speakers.
“The reality is we communicate relentlessly all of the time,” Sunday asserted.
Sanguedolce recognized that each of the speakers were Republicans, but added that state Sen. Marty Flynn, a Democrat, is a supporter of law enforcement. This reinforced Sanguedolce’s belief that many of the solutions referenced on Thursday are bipartisan matters.
“We happen to be Republicans, but there are people on both sides of the aisle supporting police,” he said.