TRENTON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — State lawmakers have advanced a bill that would increase penalties for people who assault police and other law enforcement officers.
“People have less regard for police than they should,” says assemblyman Alex Sauickie, R-Ocean County, a bill sponsor. “It’s a serious matter. It’s not a minor matter, so it’s got to be something that’s addressed.”
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Sauickie says this legislation would bump assaulting an officer up from a third-degree crime to a second-degree crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $150,000 in fines.
The goal of the bill, he said, is to reverse what he calls a trend of increasing violence towards police.
“What I’ve been hearing from constituents, including officers, is that there continues to be a rise on the assaults, and a lot of that is driven by the fact that penalties up to this point haven’t been strict enough.”
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Sauickie says he has also heard about a rise in the number of people spitting or casting bodily fluids at police, and there is a new provision to address by requiring communicable disease testing of offenders to see if the officer is at risk.
“If an individual is going to go so far as spit or exchange any other kind of fluid that could cause an officer potentially to gain a disease, that we ensure testing is done to let the officer know as soon as possible and potentially get treated for it.”
He says there seems to be plenty of bipartisan support and he thinks it will pass a full vote whenever it’s put on the schedule.
“It is a bipartisan bill, which is great to see. There is already cosponsorship on both sides of the isle,” Sauickie said, noting there seems to be more of an emphasis in Trenton to support police.
There’s no date set yet for a full vote.
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