Gov. Bev Perdue was in Rocky Mount on Friday morning as part of the opening ceremony for the N.C. Fraternal Order of Police state conference being held at the Gateway Convention Center.

“I am just here to say ‘thank you’ to all the men and women in blue or gray or green or yellow, whatever it is that you wear,” Perdue said. “I thank you for giving your life and your family’s lives to the people of North Carolina. On behalf of the nearly nine-and-a-half million people who call North Carolina home, I say ‘thank you.’”

Perdue said many of the developments within the criminal justice system in the last two years could not have been accomplished without the support of the FOP. She said one key area she worked on was the probation and parole system.

“We worked hard after hearing troubling stories about probation officers and a system that was in disarray,” she said. “I came to you, and we worked with the General Assembly, and we made a difference. I’m not naive. I know we still have got a long way to go, but things are better today for probation officers and law enforcement.”

She told the story of riding along with a Durham probation officer on a dark, rainy night last winter. She said she was surprised to learn the officers were not equipped with GPS devices or communication systems.

“If something had happened to that woman that night, I don’t know how long it would have been before someone could have tracked her down,” she said. “That is really not the way we want to do business.”

She said, with the support of the FOP, she is working on getting a grant to fund additional tools to ensure the probation officers’ safety.

Perdue touted other advancements like a communication system, which will allow the different levels of the criminal justice system to coordinate information.

“By the end of 2011, we will be fully operational in every law enforcement (agency), every community and every county in North Carolina,” she said. “There will never be an excuse for what happened to Eve Carson and thousands of other people in this state. There will never be a day when a man or a woman is out on probation or waiting adjudication in the court system that we don’t know what is happening.”

She later said she had met Carson several times prior to her March 2008 murder, which led to the ruling Thursday of a life sentence for Demario James Atwater. She said that personal connection fueled her conviction in making sure felons such as Atwater — who was awaiting adjudication on probation violations when he murdered Carson — do not slip through the cracks.

“He should never have been out on the streets,” she said. “The fact that things like that happen in North Carolina is wrong. Pure and simple.”

She also said the FOP stood with her when she learned of a loophole that would release individuals sentenced to life in prison for good behavior.

“You stood with me when we kept the prisoners in jail. You stood with me when another judge ordered the prisoners to be let out of jail. You stood with me when I appealed the case to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. And when a lot of other people were talking about what a bad thing we were doing, you stood with me.

“You stood with me victoriously three weeks ago when the Supreme Court ruled,” she said. “I slept a little safer that night because I thought, sometimes the good guys do win.”

She commended the FOP for their leadership.

“You didn’t just stand with me,” she said. “You stood with the people of North Carolina.”

The FOP executive officers have been in Rocky Mount since Tuesday, with the full conference held Friday and Saturday. Rocky Mount police Cpl. Ricky Parks, the sergeant-at-arms for the state executive board of the FOP, said the conference has brought nearly 500 people to the area. Perdue said events, such as the conference, are important, especially as America recovers from the economic recession.

“It looks to me like things are on the move for Rocky Mount and Nash County, too,” she said. “It has been a challenge, I know that, but a conference like this ... is the way we celebrate tourism in North Carolina. This is a working conference and is a great boost to our economy. I’m glad they are here.”