Legislation creating an alert system to aid in the capture of offenders who kill or seriously injure a law enforcement officer was signed into law Aug. 26.
Gov. Jack A. Markell signed House Bill 448 at Delaware State Police Troop 2 with dozens of law enforcement officers from around the state present. Police hailed the bill as a critical key in catching serious criminals who choose to harm those sworn to protect the public.
Sponsored by Rep. Teresa L. Schooley, D-Newark, House Bill 448 creates a “Blue Alert” program, which is modeled after similar programs in other states and after Delaware’s “Gold Alert” program, which is used to identify certain missing persons.
Under HB 448, the Blue Alert program would be activated when a suspect in the death or serious injury of a law enforcement officer has not been caught and might be a serious threat to the public. The investigating law enforcement agency would send an alert to media outlets and send descriptive information to the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System and the National Crime Information Center and notify the Delaware Information Analysis Center.
The alert would terminate when the suspect is located or the incident is otherwise resolved.
Thursday’s signing comes nearly one year after the September 2009 killing of Georgetown
Police Officer Chad Spicer, who was fatally shot when he and his partner stopped a vehicle that had been involved in another shooting earlier that evening.
