Members of the Sullivan County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee agreed Thursday to join other counties in calling on state lawmakers to include first responders in the privacy protection given to law enforcement officers who respond to crime scenes.
Legislator Nicholas Salomone, who chairs the committee, said right now only police officers’ personal identification information can be excluded from discovery documentation requested by defendants and their lawyers in preparing criminal cases.
“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 are preparing a resolution, based on language developed by Fulton County, to be voted on at a future meeting and sent to state lawmakers, supporting the Emergency First Responders Privacy and Protection Act.