Yes on HB 2485; Police Ambush Assault Bill
Members of the House of Representatives:
We are writing on behalf of the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police to respectfully encourage you to support HB 2485.
ARS 13-1204 states a person may be charged with aggravated assault if the person knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally provokes, injures, insults, causes physical injury or harm to another person. The statute also includes inflicting any of the injuries to a police officer.
2022 was the deadliest year for police officers since the late nineties. Ambush assaults on police officers continue to be the number one way that police officers are attacked. Twenty percent of the attacks on police officers in the United States are ambush style attacks. In Arizona, 2022 saw 21 officers shot and/or killed ranking Arizona number two in the nation for the number of police officers shot or killed. Of those 21 officers, 16 of them were involved in ambush style attacks.
Arizona came in second in the nation with the number of police officers shot or killed. For 2023, the number of police officers shot is already up 109% from this time last year. These ambush style attacks are a direct attack on the men and women in law enforcement who risk their lives every day to protect ours.
An ambush style attack can be defined as an attack where the suspect lies and waits for an officer to arrive for the sole purpose of seriously injuring or killing the police officer who arrives. Often, the suspect creates a non-emergency reason for the police officer to “investigate” a situation, unaware that the officer is being drawn into a trap.
HB2485 addresses this issue by increasing the penalty for ambushing a police officer and mandates that full sentences be served for these heinous attacks, without the possibility for early release. The Arizona FOP/Arizona Labor Council encourages your support of HB2485 which will create a starting point for addressing these issues and put a spotlight on creating solutions to solve this problem in Arizona.
On behalf of the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, we encourage your support for HB 2485.
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