After many took to the streets across the nation to protest one of the many topics brought up is how much funding does local law enforcement entities receive.

“We understand what’s happening out there and see some of the peaceful protests.”

These are just a few of the words local and federal leaders said on Friday after speaking out about funding for new officers.

The petition by groups to defund law enforcement agencies and what reforms or procedures we can be seeing to hold our men and blue accountable for certain actions.

As federal dollars are heading to the Laredo Police Department to hire 11 new officers, many state and local leaders shared their thoughts on the proposals by many groups to defund local police departments.

Congressman Henry Cuellar says “I, and other folks do not support the defunding of police. That is not a practical solution. Imagine a community where all of the police officers are not available. Let me give you an example, Nuevo Laredo, as you recall they got rid of the police officers and look what's happened.”

According to articles written on NBC News, protestors say they interpret defunding as allocating certain money from the police department to community-based programs.

Something city and state leaders say they are already doing without having to move the police budget.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz says the idea is ridiculous, police bring law and order to any society and we rely on them and what makes the U.S. a great place to live.

However, Alaniz says they are looking to create a unit that will give people the opportunity to have someone review carefully possible local police misconduct cases.

When we asked if the police department had a procedure to reform their department--like the City of Austin-- this is what the chief had to say.

Chief Claudio Trevino says, “Our police department been progressively working to improve services, improve policies and procedures in working with our community. We have not seen any specific need to hone in any specific reform. We are working within our police department and visit with our local prosecutors any needs to be worked we continuously work on those issues.”

Local leaders say they are continuously working with the community to improve the relationship between law enforcement and citizens.

Congressman Cuellar says we cannot paint everybody with the same paintbrush. If there is a bad apple, you go after them and the judicial system will take care of them.

Local law enforcement entities say they will continue holding events such as Coffee with a Cop which allows residents to sit down and interact with the officers and ask questions about what’s going on in the community.