Former Chicago police chief calls for cop murder to be classified as a federal crime: Police officer attacks on the rise since 2020.

The former police chief of Chicagoland believes that violent attacks and the murder of on-duty police officers should be considered federal crimes and is urging President-elect Trump to take action on this matter.

"Since 2020, attacks on police officers have increased, with a significant rise in ambush attacks, according to retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel, who stated in an interview with Planet Chronicle Digital that there have been more ambush attacks on officers in the past two to three years than he has ever seen before, including officers sitting in squad cars and being shot while on an assignment."

Over the past few years, there have been multiple instances of fake 911 calls with the intention of getting an officer to respond and shoot them. This has never been seen before, according to him.

Federal penalties for killing state or local law enforcement officers are limited to cases where the killing is committed to influence or retaliate against the officer's official duties and involves interstate commerce or federal jurisdiction. Although recent laws have attempted to reduce the number of police killings, there is no official federal law that makes killing a police officer in any state a felony, as most cases are prosecuted under state law.

The killing of a police officer is typically viewed as a severe form of murder that can result in severe penalties, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty, by most states.

Weitzel stated that he seeks uniformity and is eager to provide relief to his family and loved ones, as he knows that prosecution and investigation procedures are not consistently applied across all states in America.

Weitzel, who nearly died in an ambush shooting while serving as a cop, wrote to his state legislators, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, as well as the Biden and previous Trump administrations. However, he only received a response from the Trump DOJ with suggestions for best practices. Recently, Weitzel penned another letter to Trump, urging him to consider his proposal.

The unsolved police murder in the west suburbs of Chicago has made me think that we need outside agency experts to solve it. I'm not criticizing local law enforcement, but we just want it done uniformly.

Nearly 200 FBI officers were feloniously killed nationwide between 2020 and 2023, with Chicago police department seeing several of its officers killed last year, including Officer Andres Mauricio Vasquez Lasso on March 1, Officer Arenah M. Preston on May 6, and Officer Enrique Martinez, 26, who was killed during a traffic stop in the city's East Chatham neighborhood in November.

"President Trump has publicly declared himself a law-and-order president and supports many law enforcement ideals and legislation. Weitzel believes this makes it the right time to push for legislation and funding with local law enforcement since the White House is willing to work with them."

The Trump transition team did not respond to Planet Chronicle Digital's request for comment before publication.