Mental Health Update

NY troopers face mental health risks. Gov. Hochul must sign legislation to help

By Glenn Liebman and Nathan McLaughlin
Special to USA TODAY Network
June 27, 2025, 7:29 a.m. ET

Key Points

• New York lawmakers passed a bill to provide State Police with up to 20 days of paid leave after traumatic events.
• The bill aims to address mental health needs of officers and reduce stigma around seeking help.
• Law enforcement officers experience significantly more traumatic events than the general population.
• The authors urge Governor Hochul to sign the bill into law.

New York lawmakers took bold, historic, and long-overdue action earlier this month when they passed a nation-leading bill that would establish a critical incident leave policy for the State Police.

The law would give troopers who have experienced traumatic events — including use-of-force incidents — up to 20 days of paid leave to begin the mental health recovery process without stigma, punishment, or pressure to return before they’re ready.

While this bill is not as far-reaching as originally proposed, it is a giant step in the right direction. As we observe PTSD Awareness Day on June 27, Gov. Kathy Hochul should use this annual milestone as a call to action to expeditiously sign this critical incident legislation into law.

As we saw this past spring when state troopers were involved in three fatal shootings in a single week, critical incidents can happen anytime and anywhere. We cannot wait for the next occurrence before providing New York’s most elite law enforcement agency the support its members need to safeguard their mental and physical health.

For years, mental health advocates have pushed for systems that treat mental health care not as a luxury or an afterthought, but as a core part of how we care for people, support professionals, and keep our communities safe.

Nowhere is that more urgent than in law enforcement. Troopers routinely encounter situations that most of us would find unimaginable: pulling bodies from crash sites, responding to deadly domestic violence calls, or being involved in violent encounters.

These events take a toll. Yet there is still no formal pathway to take time off to process traumatic events, including use-of-force incidents that lead to serious injury or death of another, and other high-stress situations that leave emotional and psychological scars. Troopers are expected to return to work in some cases the next day — to get back in the car, back on the road, back into harm’s way — without time to process and recover.

This nation-leading critical incident legislation sets a powerful precedent by making it known that mental health matters in public service; that psychological injuries deserve the same consideration as physical ones, and that New York is willing to lead where others have hesitated.

While half of American adults will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, law enforcement officers experience an average of 178 over the course of their careers, according to a 2023 FBI study.

This kind of repeated exposure, without time to recover, increases the likelihood of burnout, depression, and long-term health consequences. In fact, studies show PTSD rates among law enforcement officers are twice as high as those in the general population.

Taking steps to bolster mental health for our state’s most elite policing unit also couldn’t come at a more urgent time. Trooper retirements have surged 520% since 2006, and burnout is fueling the profession’s recruitment and retention crisis. Providing meaningful leave after critical incidents isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic investment in public safety. When we take care of the people who protect us, we make our communities stronger. PTSD Awareness Day isn’t just a time to talk about challenges — it’s a time to act on solutions and raise the national standard. With this bill, New York can lead the country in showing that mental health support for law enforcement isn’t optional, it’s essential.Gov. Hochul, the Legislature has done its job. Now it’s your turn. Sign this bill into law as soon as possible and show every Trooper, every first responder, and every New Yorker that when we say mental health matters, we mean it.

Glenn Liebman is CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, or MHANYS.
Nathan McLaughlin is executive director of NAMI New York State.

https://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/2025/06/27/ny-state-trooper-mental-health-opinion/84355224007/