New York State Troopers involved in violent altercations will soon be granted paid leave for their mental health. Governor Kathy Hochul included the program in her state budget, after it was passed by both houses of the state legislature.
Troopers Police Benevolent Association President Charles Murphy called a violent encounter “the worst-case scenario for any officer involved in these things. And once it occurs, it never goes away.” He added most troopers seek to help people, “but now in this moment, ‘I'm being threatened and I'm going to have to take deadly physical force against an individual and I may cause their death.’ It is a horrific day for a police officer.”
The resulting trauma can affect the officer in different ways, and until now, there was not a way to deal with it.
“The reality is there is a stigma against actually admitting that you're dealing with the fallout of having to take deadly physical force,” Murphy told NYPNN. “And as it's currently constructed within the state police, if I walked in and said, ‘I'm struggling with my mental health,’ you would be disbarred from working. And basically now there's a stigma financially to you because you can't work. And there's a stigma mental health wise to you that you're not dealing with this well.”
The new law will give an officer up to 20 days leave if they’re involved in a deadly-force incident; troopers at the scene, but not directly involved, could get up to 10 days off.
“The fact that we've moved it to the end of the line and it's going to be something codified (into law) where we have language forever, it really does remove the stigma and allows people to say, ‘I might need five days. I might need the 20 days. I don't need any days,’ but it's not going to be like you're not tough enough anymore,” said Murphy, thanking legislators for passing the bill.
He added the measure is one of the first policies in the nation for trauma-related leave. It will cover the 5,000 New York State Troopers once the budget is passed.
Murphy admits local law enforcement agencies, such as city police or county sheriffs, are often more involved in violent confrontations. But he said he hopes the measure to help with mental health implications afterward can become a model for other police agencies.
