Protecting Police Officers

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Protecting Police Officers

Would you risk your life for a million bucks? A police officer or deputy does it for a lot less! Those words were displayed on a huge billboard sign located along a Maryland roadway. Law enforcement officers (LEOs) all across the United States do this on a daily basis. However, in the State of Maryland, the penalties for assaulting a police dog are tougher than for assaulting a police dog’s handler (Abruzzese, 2005). In Maryland, assaulting LEOs is considered the equivalent to a citizen assaulting another citizen. An assault not involving serious injury or the use of a weapon is classified as a misdemeanor, which is a second-degree assault. A second-degree assault carries a lesser penalty than a felony assault, which is a first-degree assault. According to the Anne Arundel County Fraternal Order of Police Web site, approximately 34 States, including all of Maryland’s neighboring States, have laws that make it a felony to assault a law enforcement officer (http://www.aacofop70.org). Those laws have reduced the number of assaults on officers working in those states. Increasing the penalties for assaulting Maryland law enforcement officers in the line of duty will erase the embarrassing quirk in the current laws, reduce the number of attacks on police, and return the respect that officers deserve.

Proponents argue that police officers are responsible for maintaining order and peace within a society, act as protectors of the weak and defenseless, and do so at the risk of injury to themselves or even the loss of their own life. In addition, proponents argue that in the execution of an officer’s job it is necessary to come into physical contact with subjects to effect an arrest of violators, which increases the odds of a physical confrontation and raises the chances of the officer’s being assaulted. More than likely, police officers choose their profession because of their desire to help others, to protect members of society who cannot protect themselves, and to stop those who violate the law. It is unlikely that police officers become police thinking that being assaulted is a requirement or criteria of their profession. Moreover, it is apparent that police officers realize and readily accept the fact that they may be put in harm’s way, and may risk serious injury or even death to protect people they do not even know.

One may ask how increasing the penalties for attacking law enforcement officers will protect them.

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