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New York State Discovery Law Will Have A Major Impact On New York States Fire & EMS Services Starting January 1st 2020
While most fire departments across the state of New York normally are setting their budgets in October and November of 2019 and voting on them for December to be ready to go for January of 2020. One thing most fire departments did not add into the budget this year is going to be The possibility of having large legal fees in protecting their firefighters and emergency medical technicians in court and paying to compensate firefighters and emergency medical technicians for lost wages. Under the new Discovery law passed by New York State Senators and Governor Andrew Cuomo that will be taking place at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2020. The Discovery Law will have a major effect on EMS and fire service throughout the entire state of New York from the basic traffic accident where a traffic ticket is issued, to any type of fire were an arrest is made.
The Discovery Law Is a requirement that is part of the new evidence rules that are designed to improve the access of evidence for criminal defendants and their legal counsel days after their arrest. Law-enforcement and prosecutors must turn over all information and evidence regarding a legal case from a basic traffic ticket to a major crime to the defense attorney or defendant accused in the crime or traffic violation within 15 days. The new Discovery law is praised by defense lawyers, but not by prosecutors or emergency responders.
A lot of departments are objecting to the new requirements in the states criminal justice laws that requires they and other “potential“ criminal case witnesses submit to criminal background checks, culminating it is an invasion of privacy. The new Discovery law will require that prosecutors have criminal history reports compiled for anyone who may be witness in a criminal case And including vehicle and traffic laws that were broken during an accident. Emergency responders normally have first contact with crime victims and defendants when some one calls 911 for help. This means in 2020 first responders are going to feel the effect of the new Discovery Law first. This means firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, nurses, or anyone involved in the incident who had contact with the victim or defendant or witnessed to the crime in anyway will need to turn over their information to law enforcement immediately.
Each firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, nurse, or anyone that witnessed the crime or had contact with the victim or the defendant will have to turnover their personal information including their date of birth, home address, phone number, and email over to the defendant accused of the crime and are now subject to questioning by the individual accused of a crime or their defense attorney. The individual accused of the crime can then make contact with each witness or person on scene of the incident and these individuals will have to comply under these new laws. Most departments do not issue cell phones to Fire Chief’s as it is a very costly item on Departments and Departments allow for the fire chiefs to use their personal cell phones on scene. This personal cell phone if it is used to take pictures in anyway or make any type of communication can become evidence and taken under the new Discovery laws. The fire chief cell phone then will be turned over to the defendant or defense attorney as part of the evidence.
To all of the Fire Photographer‘s that are with departments, it has been suggested that you get press credentials in order to protect yourself and your equipment in order to keep informing the public on what the departments in your community are doing. By having the press credentials and having a verbal agreement with the fire chiefs of the departments and in your area it will allow for you to be protected under the press laws of the state of New York. Departments that are using photographers that are members of the press are protected from the Discovery laws.
The old ways of being able to protect first responders are no more.. A lot of emergency responders are fearing their information will end up in the wrong person‘s hands and can potentially cause major safety concerns for them or their family members. Individuals involved on the scenes will be called into court more often as a witness in a simple traffic accident case, where a traffic ticket is issued. Firefighters or emergency medical technicians can be questioned on what they did on scene, what items they moved on the vehicle, in the house fire, on the victim or defendant. Firefighters or emergency medical technicians training and techniques of to putting out the fire and extricating victims or even preserving evidence can be brought up in court now or in questioning by the defense attorney or defendant. The fire department then will be on the hook for covering lost wages, and legal fees to protect their members. If the emergency responder fails to comply to the request of the defense attorney or defendant it can cause major complications for the emergency responder for not showing up to court and also result in the individual that was accused of a crime having their case dismissed. Defense attorneys are now preparing for an easier time in court with the new Discovery law knowing that most departments are not going to be able to comply with the request to meet the 15 day deadline to turning over all of this information. Most departments did not plan for this law to effect them , this is going to be a major strain on the already fragile fire services and emergency medical services in the state of New York. The disclosure law also adds a large amount of work to these departments but no additional funding. The additional funding will come from higher taxes on communities throughout the state of New York in the coming year. The Discovery law is going to create a major problem for communities in getting volunteer firefighters or emergency medical technicians to serve the community. The fire service is already going through a major decrease in volunteers across the state of New York as departments are seeing a steady increase in emergency calls yearly and A rapid decline in volunteers. The rapid decline In volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians is due to higher taxes, longer hours at work, higher training requirements that an Which and average person is struggling to meet and people having to work longer hours in order to make ends meat to survive to live in New York State. ...
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