WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) co-sponsored the Penalizing Radicals and Others who Thwart Emergency Care and Transportation (PROTECT) for Law Enforcement Officers Act of 2020 that would make it a federal crime to knowingly prevent an injured law enforcement officer from receiving emergency medical care.

This week, Senator Tillis made a speech on the Senate floor urging the protection of law enforcement and discussed his legislation, the Protect and Serve Act. Watch the video here.

“In light of the reoccurring attacks on law enforcement and the increasingly violent behavior we see in this country, we must do everything we can to make sure our law enforcement officers receive the necessary emergency medical care in the event of an injury sustained in the line of duty,” said Senator Tillis. “These attacks will not stand and I will continue working to ensure our brave men and women in blue are protected and supported.”

The PROTECT Law Enforcement Officers Act of 2020 would create a new federal crime to penalize anyone who knowingly prevents a law enforcement officer from accessing emergency medical services for an injury suffered in the line of duty or from a criminal act.

Current events evidencing attacks on law enforcement officers and the need to protect them:

• Earlier this year in South Carolina, a Sumter County Sheriff’s Deputy, Corporal Andrew Gillette, was shot at point blank range and killed in the line of duty, despite wearing a bulletproof vest.
• Video from last weekend shows an outright assassin walking up to two L.A. Sheriff’s deputies, and opening fire at point blank range.  When the officers were rushed to the hospital, protesters blocked the emergency entrances and exits, shouting, “We hope they die!!”  Those two Sheriff’s deputies – one, a 31-year old mother of one who was shot in the jaw, the other, 24-year-old male who has been released but will be going to a long-term care facility – are recovering. 
• A police station in Seattle was burned to the ground earlier this summer.
• Hundreds of officers in New York have been injured while policing protests that have turned violent, dozens of police vehicles have been torched, and an officer was struck by a vehicle in a deliberate hit-and-run captured on video.
• Eleven officers and 50 Secret Service agents were injured – some, by rioters throwing Molotov cocktails – during demonstrations in Washington, D.C. that turned violent.
• In July, 49 officers were injured after an ambush at the Columbus statute in Grant Park.
• Fifty-one Chicago police officers have been shot this year alone, quadrupling any previous year in Chicago's history.
• Nine officers have been shot in St. Louis since June.