TRENTON -- In the wake of the deadly shooting of police officers in Dallas, a New Jersey lawmaker wants to make attacks on police and first responders a hate crime.

Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) said Monday he plans to introduce legislation expanding New Jersey's hate crime statute to include violence against police -- attacks he called "especially outrageous."

The proposal comes after a lone gunman shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven others during a protest over fatal police shootings in Texas last week.

"We cannot allow an entire class of public servants to be targeted for violence due to their profession," Kyrillos said. "If such attacks don't qualify as hate crimes, I don't know what does."

Current law prohibits so-called bias intimidation based on nine different categories, including race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.

The proposed measure would add law enforcement officers and emergency services personnel to the list of protected groups, according to a draft of the legislation obtained by NJ Advance Media.

A person would be guilty of bias intimidation if they committed another prohibited act, such as assault or harassment, "under circumstances that would cause a reasonable individual or group of individuals to be intimidated," according to the proposed text.

Kyrillos' director of legislative affairs, Tony Perry, said the senator plans to formally introduce the legislation on Thursday. A similar bill was introduced in the Assembly by Assemblyman Ronald Dancer (R-Ocean) in January.

Ari Rosmarin, the public policy director at the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, decried the Dallas attacks as "senseless." But he said the proposed changes to the hate crime law were unnecessary.

He noted that New Jersey law requires life without parole for cop killers and distinguishes assault on a police officer as a more serious offense than assault of a civilian.

"The events of the past week should generate a refocused effort in Trenton on fixing our broken criminal justice system, but this isn't it," Rosmarin said.

Preliminary data released by the FBI in May also show that the number of police officers deliberately killed by suspects was on the decline, down nearly 20 percent from 2014.

But Patrick Colligan, the president of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association, said police on patrol feel under attack, particularly after the Dallas shooting. He said Micah Xavier Johnson, the shooter who allegedly told police he wanted to killed white police officers, "pointed his rifle with hate."

Colligan said the proposed bill "sends the message that we're a separate class."

"I know commercial fishermen and coal miners have a more dangerous profession (in terms of on-the-job deaths), but they're killed because of accidents," he said. "We're targeted because of the uniform."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.