Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday signed legislation mandating that the FDNY provide body armor to emergency medical services (EMS) workers and train them in self-defense and de-escalation techniques.
Adams, a former NYPD captain, said EMS — which includes emergency medical technicians and paramedics — workers are “selfless heroes, who show up when we need them the most.”
The mayor had previously been noncommittal on whether he would sign the measures when asked about them last month after they passed the council.
“Our EMS employees always have the backs of New Yorkers and we want to make sure that we have them covered as well with this legislation,” the mayor said, during a May 1 bill signing ceremony at City Hall. “By providing extra protection for them while they are out on the streets saving lives, it sends the right message that our first responders will always be under our care and protection.”
One law essentially codifies an already existing practice of the FDNY providing body armor to EMS workers, while setting requirements that the vests meet the National Institute of Justice’s bullet and stab resistant standards. The other law requires the department to train emergency medical workers in de-escalation and self-defense every three years.
The legislation is intended to give EMS workers better protection amid the high volume of life-threatening situations they regularly respond to.
Emergency services workers face safety risks including trauma, threats of injury and actual assaults, all while making relatively modest wages, according to the council. During the last fiscal year — Fiscal Year 2023 — EMS workers responded to 30,306 reported incidents that were considered life-threatening.
Some EMS workers have even been killed on the job in recent years, such as 61-year-old Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, who was stabbed to death in Astoria in 2022 in a seemingly random attack.
City Council Member Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), who sponsored the legislation, said they fall into the category of measures lawmakers wish they did not have to pass.
“There is no other job title in the City of New York that has saw this scale of increase in attacks on members, as members of the EMT core and EMT supervisors and paramedics,” Borelli said. “This will give high-quality body armor, protecting against ballistics and against slashing and stabbing to all members of the department who are responding to medical emergencies.”
