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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

U.S. House Approves Pierluisi Bill

Legislation would establish national “Blue Alert” system to help apprehend those who kill or seriously injure law enforcement officers

Washington, DC- By a vote of 394 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives last night approved H.R. 365, the National Blue Alert Act of 2012, sponsored by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and New York Republican Michael Grimm, which seeks to protect and defend law enforcement officers throughout the nation.

H.R. 365 directs the U.S. Attorney General to establish a national “Blue Alert” communications network within the Department of Justice to disseminate information when a law enforcement officer is killed or seriously injured in the line of duty and the suspect has not yet been apprehended. A Blue Alert would provide a physical description of the suspect and could also include a description of the suspect’s vehicle and license plate information.

“The Blue Alert system is a cooperative effort among federal, state and local authorities, law enforcement agencies, and the general public. The Blue Alert system would utilize the same infrastructure as Amber Alerts, which are disseminated for missing children, and Silver Alerts, which are disseminated for missing seniors,” said Pierluisi.

The Grimm-Pierluisi bill was approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee, of which the Resident Commissioner is a member, on April 25th. An identical companion bill to H.R. 365 has already been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and currently awaits floor consideration in that chamber.

During his speech in support of the legislation on the House floor, Pierluisi observed that, in the last 220 years, nearly 21,000 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty in the United States, and many more have been seriously injured.

“In Puerto Rico, the jurisdiction I represent, over 325 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty since 1900—with over 40 Island officers killed between the year 2000 and the year 2010,” said Pierluisi during his floor speech.

The Resident Commissioner mentioned that, this year, two veteran Puerto Rico officers were fatally shot in the line of duty—Abimael Castro Berrocal and Francis Crespo Mandry. Yesterday, those two officers, along with over 160 of their brothers and sisters in law enforcement who died in the line of duty in the past year, were honored in front of the Capitol as part of the National Peace Officers Memorial Service.

Pursuant to the Grimm-Pierluisi bill, the U.S. Attorney General would assign a DOJ officer to serve as the national coordinator of the Blue Alert communications network.

“The purpose of the legislation is to help deter violent acts against police officers and, in the event such a violent act occurs, to ensure that the perpetrator is quickly apprehended and brought to justice,” said the Resident Commissioner.

Pierluisi was asked to manage H.R. 365 for the Democrats on the House floor yesterday, along with two other bills that had been approved by the Judiciary Committee.

Today, along with a group of other Members of Congress from both political parties, including Congressman Grimm, the Resident Commissioner will host a press conference as part of National Police Week to honor law enforcement officers and to highlight the efforts that he and his colleagues have undertaken to support them and their work. Besides the National Blue Alert Act, these efforts include an amendment that Pierluisi and Grimm successfully offered last week to the Fiscal Year 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which increased funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring program by $126 million, from $40 million to $166 million.

Pierluisi has been a leading champion in Congress for the COPS program, which, since its inception, has provided over $160 million in grants to law enforcement agencies in Puerto Rico and had funded the hiring of over 3,700 additional police officers on the Island to prevent and respond to crime.