It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 11-5-5 of the General Laws in Chapter 11-5 entitled "ASSAULTS" is hereby amended to read as follows:

11-5-5 Assault of police officers and other officials. -- Any person who shall make an assault or battery or both by knowingly and wilfully either (a) striking or (b) spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly used as a personal defense weapon including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum product or like products strike a uniformed member of the state police or metropolitan park police, conservation officers, state properties patrol officer, probation and parole officers, state government case worker or investigator, judge of the supreme, superior, family {DEL or DEL} district court, {ADD administrative adjudication court or municipal court, ADD} sheriff, deputy sheriff or city or town police officer or firefighter, member of the Rhode Island State Marshals of the department of corrections, member of the capitol police, member of campus security force of state colleges and universities, Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus driver, or on-duty plainclothes member of the town, city or state police force, investigator of the Department of the Attorney General appointed pursuant to section 42-9-8.1, or member of the railroad police after proper identification is displayed, or uniformed dog officer, or out-of-state police officer called into Rhode Island under a cooperative agreement to provide mutual aid at the request of the state of Rhode Island pursuant to chapter 37 of title 42, or assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general, causing bodily injury while the officer or official is engaged in the performance of his or her duty, shall be deemed to have committed a felony, and shall be imprisoned not exceeding three (3) years or fined not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) or both.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.