USA TODAY International Edition
From fanfare to fizzle: National ‘ Blue Alert’ police law still stalled
Goal was to give officers an early warning on threats
President Obama signed a law last year intended to protect police officers from ambush attacks, promising to do “everything we can to help ensure the safety of our police officers when they’re in the line of duty.”
Fifteen months later, his administration has yet to implement any provision of that law.
The Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015 established a nationwide system to give police an early warning of threats against police officers, similar to Amber Alerts for missing children. The law sped through Congress — where it passed both chambers by a voice vote — after two New York City police officers were shot and killed in an ambush attack in 2014.
But even after a dangerous summer of ambush- style attacks — including high- profile cases in Dallas and Baton Rouge that were in apparent retaliation for the police shootings of African- American men — the national Blue Alert still isn’t in place.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, USA TODAY requested four categories of guidance documents and reports required under the law. The Justice Department responded that no such records existed.
In a separate statement to USA TODAY, the Justice Department said it took more than a year to determine which office would implement the law.
“Since the passage of the Blue Alert Act, the department has devoted time and consideration to ensure the most appropriate and well suited DOJ component lead
this effort,” said Shannon Long of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which was ultimately assigned the task. “In June, following a preliminary assessment of the Blue Alert program, the COPS Office was assigned to implement the program based on their extensive work and collaborative research on officer safety and wellness.”
Obama signed the bill into law May 19, 2015. Long said the Justice Department would have an implementation plan within 60 days.
This year, at least 14 police officers have been killed in ambush attacks through July 20, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. During the same period last year, there were three.
The goal of the law was to give police an early warning system when there are specific threats against police officers. In the New York case that inspired passage of the law, the assailant had posted on Instagram that he was targeting police in retaliation against police- involved killings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City. That information never reached New York.
One issue: While Congress required the Justice Department to establish the program, it didn’t appropriate any additional money. And it specifically banned the Blue Alert coordinator from traveling in order to implement the law. Long said the Justice Department would try to implement the portions of the law that don’t require significant funding while it asks Congress for more money.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of the system at $ 1 million.
But supporters of the law say the federal government wouldn’t be creating a system from scratch. Twenty- seven states have already established Blue Alert programs — including, most re- cently, North Carolina on July 11. The federal role is to encourage similar systems in other states and to link them together in one network.
“We have the system already,” said Tom Berry, founder of the Blue Alert Foundation. “If they’re just sitting there trying to reinvent the wheel, they’re crazy.”