PAX Centurion - Spring 2019

Page 22 • PAX CENTURION • Spring 2019 617-989-BPPA (2772) friends, were able to get this bill passed and signed into law effective January 1, 2019. This new law grants a base level of confidentiality to peer support technicians when assisting and dealing with first responders at their time of need. As always, an attorney should be advised and contacted if or when possibly necessary. The bill was first filed six years ago, written with the assistance of our own Sgt. Brian Fleming, Fire’s Eddie Kelly andAttorney Michael Muse. It languished for four years with no movement. Then, at the start of the last session, President Pat Rose tasked me with re- filing and taking the lead which I gladly accepted. With the tireless efforts of John Nelson of MassCop and Michael Muse of the Boston Detectives Association and everyone mentioned in the previous paragraphs, we accomplished this goal together. As time moves on, if problems arise or tweaks need to be made to make this law more efficient, we will file those amendments and try to make them happen as well. Like me, I hope you are very proud of our success over the last four years. The BPPAwas stuck on the bottom floor of politics for long over a decade; we didn’t pass a single piece of legislation. Now, we’ve established new relationships, repaired broken ones and have passed bills each of the last two sessions. For those of you who are fairly new or new to politics, know that it is very difficult to pass a bill into law; keep in mind all of the media through the years on major pieces of legislation that died or didn’t pass. Big pieces like banks, credit unions, healthcare, climate change, sanctuary city bills, and literally thousands of others……they died in committee or were not brought to the floor. HOWEVER, IN THE ENDING DAYS OFTHEYEAR, WEWEREABLE TO GETTHE SENATE PRESIDENT, SPEAKER OFTHE HOUSEAND GOVERNOR TOMODIFY, PASSAND SIGN OUR BILL INTO LAW. THIS ISABIG ACCOMPLISHMENT. Please readAttorney John B. Becker’s article below on the passage and signing of this new law. Attorney Becker is a distinguished member of the law firm Sandulli Grace. Sandulli Grace is one of the law firms retained and utilized by the BPPA throughout the years whose excellent reputation precedes them. A t the end of December 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a new bill that provides important protections for first responders in critical incidents. The signing was the culmination of six years of work by the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Policy Group, which includes the major public safety unions in the Commonwealth. This year’s effort was spearheaded by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA), Massachusetts Coalition of Police (MassCOP), and the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Association as part of a coalition of many different groups and interested individuals all pursuing the goal of providing protection to individuals involved in stressful critical incidents. The law, which is entitled “An Act Relative to Critical Incident Intervention by Emergency Service Providers,” makes communications between emergency service providers, such as police officers, firefighters and EMTs, with crisis intervention personnel confidential and privileged (with certain exceptions). The purpose of the law is to allow first responders at critical incidents to obtain needed counseling and crisis intervention services without having to worry about whether conversations that occur in that context will later be disclosed. Without this law, a stress counselor or other crisis intervention specialist could be forced to testify in court about what a first responder said as part of counseling and treatment. The privilege created by this law is similar to the laws protecting confidentiality of conversations with psychotherapists. These laws recognize that the mental health of these individuals is a priority, and keeping the communications confidential will allow the individuals to participate fully in the Massachusetts Public Safety Unions succeed in passing new law protecting confidentiality of stress counseling for first responders in critical incidents By John M. Becker, Esq., Sandulli Grace counseling without having to worry about whether these conversations will be disclosed in future proceedings. The law recognizes that stress and trauma experienced by police officers, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders when responding to critical incidents can cause serious long term psychological harm and, in the worst cases, lead to PTSD, substance abuse, and even suicide Getting stress counselors and other crisis intervention personnel to the scenes of critical incidents to provide assistance to these first responders is crucial in preventing long-term harm, but such intervention will be more effective if all parties know that the communications made in the course of such intervention will be kept confidential. The new law recognizes that in certain situations, the privilege will not apply. These include situations in which a crisis intervention specialist reasonably believes that the first responder: (1) is an imminent threat of harming himself or others; (2) has engaged in child abuse; or (3) has admitted to committing a crime or violating a law normally enforced by the public safety agency that employs him. The privilege would also not apply to crisis intervention specialists who were themselves first responders or witnesses to the critical incident, or to situations in which the first responder has disclosed the information to a third party (other than his attorney, spouse or psychotherapist). See Public Safety on page 23 Gov. Baker signs confidentiality / peer support into law… From Confidentiality/Peer Support Law on page 10 John M. Becker, Esq.