The Iowa State House passed a “Back The Blue” bill this week, which adds protections to law enforcement officers. State Representative Jon Thorup of Knoxville, a state trooper, spoke in support of the bill, using a story about how he and Knoxville officers responded to a domestic abuse call and had to apprehend a suspect with a knife in Knoxville a few years ago.

It turned out that we were able to jump on the suspect as he was reaching for the knife. No one was stabbed or shot. We only have seconds to make these decisions out there. Attorneys, managers, have hours, weeks to decide if what we did was right or wrong, we only have a few seconds. So if we could get just a little more protection, I think it would not only encourage more people to apply for these jobs, but it would let most of us worry about knives and not worry about getting in trouble with management.”

The bill passed the house by a 63-30 vote, and moves to the Senate for further consideration.