Gov. Charlie Baker said his office is talking with lawmakers and law enforcement officials about crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty for cop killers, a regular campaign issue for the popular Republican that’s gained steam in the wake of Yarmouth police K-9 handler Sgt. Sean Gannon’s killing last month.

Baker said yesterday he’s approaching the issue the same way his administration did after career criminal Jorge Zambrano shot dead Auburn officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. during a traffic stop in 2016. Zambrano was free on low bail at the time despite having been accused of assaulting a cop. In response, Baker filed a bill making that charge a felony.

“We are currently talking to the same people to figure out the best way to deal with capital punishment as it relates to the murder of a police officer, and when we finish those conversations we will put something before the Legislature and we will work it,” Baker told reporters yesterday, following a Herald report noting his failure to act on past campaign rhetoric touting a death penalty for cop killers.

Baker said past attempts to reinstate the death penalty shot down by the lawmakers or the Supreme Judicial Court warrant a deliberate process.

“That’s one of the reasons why we need to spend time talking to a lot of people about it, to make sure when we file something, we think it’s something that will be able to garner public support for it and stand,” Baker said.

The death penalty has been shut down in Massachusetts since a 1984 high court ruling found it encouraged defendants to plead guilty because prosecutors could only seek the death penalty only after a jury trial.

Prior efforts to restore the death penalty failed on Beacon Hill in 2005 and 1997.

Lawrence Friedman, constitutional law professor at New England Law, said anyone crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty will have a difficult task given the myriad legal challenges it could face.

“Our Supreme Judicial Court, under our constitution, takes the protections of due process and equal protection very seriously, as it should,” Friedman said.

Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox panned reinstating the death penalty as a costly waste of time.

“This is a foolish attempt because it’s not economically wise,” Fox said. “It’s not a pressing issue. We don’t have soaring crime rate, and we have other issues that require resources much more. … I’m not saying we should let cop killers go. Keep them in prison. It’s a perfectly adequate penalty.”