Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to a law enforcement group in Birmingham on Friday afternoon about the importance of local policing and getting tough on drug dealers.

The former Alabama senator spoke to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives CEO luncheon at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Birmingham. He talked about the importance of local police, the work NOBLE has done nationwide, and about being tough on drug crimes.

Sessions also expressed his appreciation for local law enforcement, recognizing former Birmingham Police Chief Johnnie Johnson. Johnson was the second black police officer in Birmingham, and the first black police chief in the Magic City.

"He told his officers to get to know the community, and to treat people like they're somebody. That's good advice for all of us," he said. "We should remember that, really."

Sessions talked about NOBLE, and his first hand experience working with black police officers in Mobile when he was a federal prosecutor and later a U.S. Attorney in south Alabama. "We were a small office, and I worked closely with many African American police officers and federal agents. I know firsthand the excellence of your work and the unique skills you have... That work made minority communities safer," Sessions said. "There is nothing I am more proud of than the satisfying work we were able to do in those years."

"I just know that if we do this thing right through law enforcement... we can make every neighborhood safe, not just those that got money to build a wall around their houses, in my opinion," he said. "We're not here to see how many people we can lock up. Our goal must be to see how we can make people feel safe."

He also spoke about the rise of heroin and fentanyl-related overdoses, calling it the "deadliest drug epidemic in American history." Sessions said approximately 64,000 people across the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2016, which he said is nearly the equivalent of the city of Dothan. "That's a lot if you don't know Dothan!" he said. "It is indeed a good town."

"Drug dealers take lives everyday... I think we do need to be tough," he said. "Addictions are so powerful, people just don't seem to be able to break free from it."

Sessions did not make a reference in his speech to recent suggestions by his boss, President Donald Trump, that some drug dealers should face the death penalty. But on a Birmingham talk show this morning before his speech Sessions also spoke about "going after" gangs that distribute drugs, and how he "will not hesitate" to bring the death penalty in certain, appropriate drug cases.

"We fear that if the Mexicans start producing laboratories in Mexico to make fentanyl and not just in China... then we can have an almost unlimited supply," Sessions told the group.

In closing, Sessions thanked police officers around the country and the members of NOBLE for their work and support of the Department of Justice. "You can be certain about this: We have your back and you have our thanks," he said.

Following his speech at the NOBLE event, Sessions headed to visit UAB's Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Continuing Care Nursery, which provides extended step-down care for preterm and term babies with medical conditions, including babies impacted by the opioid crisis. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Jay Town was scheduled to visit the hospital with Sessions.

During his earlier appearance Friday on Talk 99.5, Sessions talked about his relationship with Trump, the Andrew McCabe firing, and the opioid crisis. He said he understood Trump's frustration with his recusal from the Russia investigation, but he served at the pleasure of the president. "That's just his style. I mean, he says what's on his mind at the time, I understand that," he said. "If I felt like I couldn't carry out the principles I believe in... that would be one thing. But I feel like we're able to do that every day."