MONTICELLO – The Sullivan County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee has agreed for the county to join others in calling on the state lawmakers to include first responders in the privacy protection afforded law enforcement in responding to crime scenes.
“Currently, only police officers’ personally identifying information can be excluded from ‘discovery’ documentation requested by defendants and their attorneys during criminal case preparations,” said Legislator Nicholas Salomone, chairman of the legislature’s Public Safety Committee. “EMS workers, firefighters and other first responders do not enjoy such protection, meaning they are at risk of retaliation, intimidation or other witness tampering – simply because they were doing their job.”
Sullivan County legislators plan on sending a resolution, which used language from Fulton County, to the state legislature encouraging them to support the Emergency First Responders Privacy and Protection Act (S.7280/A.09107), which would close the loophole by keeping first responders’ names and other identifying information confidential.
