Louisiana State Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, announced today that he will file legislation to create the Louisiana Police Funding Protection Act during the upcoming special legislative session beginning Sept. 28.
The bill will be designed to protect against any municipality or public university defunding or systematically dismantling their police department, according to a news release from Harris’ office.
Harris’ bill comes at a time when, both in Louisiana and nationwide, activists, politicians and protesters are calling for law enforcement reform, changes to agency funding and harsher punishments for law enforcement officers who use unnecessary force.
“Our police officers are the line between order and chaos. Protecting the public is a fundamental purpose of government,” Harris says in a prepared statement. “If a city or university votes to defund their police department, they should understand that they will lose state dollars by doing so.”
Harris has supported law enforcement throughout his tenure in the state House. In 2016, he authored and passed the nation’s first Blue Lives Matter law, which made it a hate crime to target police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel.
