BILL NUMBER: S8589A
SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to extreme
risk protection orders
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To amend the definition of "petitioner" under New York State's Extreme
Risk Protection Order (ERPO) and make clarifying changes to the CPLR.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
§ 1- Amends the definition of "petitioner" under New York State's ERPO
statute to replace police officer with police agency.
§ 2- Amends the CPLR to make clarifying changes with reference to who
may file an ERPO.
§ 3 - This act shall take effect immediately.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND VERSION:
§ 1 - Amended the language who is a petitioner to be a law enforcement
agency employing a police officer, or police officer who may file an
application for ERPO.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2019, New York State's Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) legis-
lation went into effect, which provides a legal avenue to temporarily
restrict access to firearms for those who pose a serious risk of harm to
themselves or others. While police officers, district attorney's and
schools can commence an ERPO, the vast majority of or ERPOs are being
filed by law enforcement.
In 2020, judges issued protection orders against 255 people across New
York This year, in just over four months, the number of individuals
subjected to emergency or temporary risk protection orders topped 2,120.
And between 2020 and last November, State Police had seized 2,521
firearms under emergency protection orders - a figure that does not
include seizures made by more than 150 other New York police agencies.
Due to the increasing amount of ERPOs that police officers are required
to file with their individual names as the petitioner, it is creating
challenges in -the officers' personal lives. Police officers have had
complications with mortgage applications and other situations which
require a search of civil lawsuits in which they are a party.
This minor amendment to allow the police agency to be listed as the
petitioner in lieu of the police officer's name would alleviate this
situation.
 
PRIOR HISTORY:
New Bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S8589: 6340 civil practice law, 6340(2) civil practice law
S8589A: 6340 civil practice law, 6340(2) civil practice law, 6341 civil practice law