A retired police chief from Illinois is urging President-elect Trump to make ambush attacks on law enforcement officers a federal crime. He cites a disturbing increase in such attacks since 2020, including instances where officers are gunned down while on duty or responding to fake 911 calls. He argues that current laws, which primarily allow for federal prosecution if the killing is related to the officer's duties and involves interstate commerce, are insufficient.
An ex-Chicagoland police chief says violent ambushes and murder of on-duty police officers need to be punishable as a federal crime, and he's calling on President-elect Donald Trump to move the effort forward. 'Attacks on police officers are certainly on the rise since 2020, and what's really on the rise is ambush,' retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Currently, killing state or local law enforcement officers can lead to a federal penalty only if the killing is committed to influence or retaliate against the officer's official duties and involves interstate commerce or federal jurisdiction. While some laws have been passed in recent years to curb the uptick in police killings, there's no official federal law that killing a police officer in any state is a felony because most cases are prosecuted under state law.
There's still an unsolved police murder in the west suburbs of Chicago, and that really that also made me think, like, we need to get an outside agency's experts in doing it. I'm not criticizing local law enforcement, I'm saying we just want it done uniformly,' he said. FBI data shows a significant rise in officer fatalities nationwide between 2020 and 2023, with nearly 200 officers feloniously killed over three years.
President Trump has publicly stated he's a law-and-order president. He has stated he supports law enforcement, many of the law enforcement ideals and legislation,' Weitzel said. 'So, it's the right time to at least push this, because we have somebody who in the White House says he's willing to work and pass legislation and funding with local law enforcement.
POLICE KILLINGS FEDERAL LAW AMBUSH ATTACKS LAW ENFORCEMENT CRIME
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