An Act To Make the Law Regarding Critical Incident Stress Management Teams More Beneficial and Effective
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 25 MRSA §4201, sub-§§1 and 2, as enacted by PL 2009, c. 289, §1, are amended to read:
1. Critical incident. "Critical incident" means a work-related incident that causes or has the potential to cause a law enforcement officer an employee of or emergency dispatcher for a criminal justice agency to experience emotional or physical stress. "Critical incident" includes, but is not limited to, use-of-force encounters that may result in the death of or serious injury to another person or an officer, fatal motor vehicle accidents, child abuse investigations and death investigations.
2. Critical incident stress management team. "Critical incident stress management team" means a team composed of members of a state, county or municipal designated by the chief law enforcement officer of a law enforcement agency , or the chief law enforcement officer's designee, that is trained, in accordance with standards established by rule by the Commissioner of Public Safety, to assist and provide support to any person employed by the team's own agency or another law enforcement criminal justice agency who has been involved in a critical incident that may affect, or has affected, the person's work performance or general well-being. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 2. 25 MRSA §4201, sub-§3 is enacted to read:
3. Criminal justice agency. "Criminal justice agency" has the same meaning as in Title 16, section 803, subsection 4.
SUMMARY
This bill amends the definition of "critical incident" to include employees of and emergency dispatchers for a criminal justice agency. The bill also allows the chief law enforcement officer of a law enforcement agency or the chief law enforcement officer's designee to designate critical incident stress management team members.