Substantially More Red Flag Applications Filed in Last Three Months Than All of 2021
State Police Reports More Than 93 Percent Increase, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office Reports More Than 75 Percent Increase in Red Flag Applications
Progress Comes After Governor Hochul Implemented Executive Order and Passed New Legislation Requiring Red Flag Law Implementation
State Will Offer New Red Flag Law Training in Partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety
Governor Hochul: “We also did strengthen our Red Flag Laws because this way we can keep deadly weapons out of the hands of those who are threat to themselves or society. As I mentioned, the Buffalo shooters said what he would do. He fell through the cracks, and as we left there, determined to make meaningful changes, I signed an executive order almost immediately. And I required our State Police, not an option, but a requirement, that they file a protection order whenever they have probable cause to believe that an individual is a threat to themselves or others.”
Hochul: “We launched the first-in-the-nation consortium of nine states, nine states, and including NYPD and Boston PD and all the states around, and asked them to come together and to work for the first time in history work as one team. Not competitive, but the people who are trafficking guns, they’re coming through these states, and somebody seeing something somewhere and that intelligence should not stop at their state border. Let’s share that information. Let’s bring it together. And the state police here in New York is leading that. So, as a result of that, launched in January, we’ve seen a 104 percent increase in gun seizures by New York State law enforcement.”
On Friday August 12, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a major increase in applications for Extreme Risk Protection Orders under New York’s Red Flag Law—with substantially more ERPOs filed in the last three months than in all of 2021.The increase comes after Governor Hochul took decisive action in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, issuing an Executive Order requiring State Police to expand their use of the Red Flag Law and working with the legislature to pass a new law requiring all law enforcement agencies in New York to increase the use of these potentially life-saving orders. Governor Hochul made the announcement in Suffolk County where the County Sheriff’s Office is reporting a more than 75 percent increase in utilization of the Red Flag Law over the last three months.
There’s a partial rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks, for full audio or video click on the links below:
Good morning, everyone. Actually, good afternoon, everyone. Great to see you at this wonderful site. I want to thank Supervisor Rich Schaffer for offering this beautiful youth center. There’s a lot of kids out there they’re enjoying the final days of summer. They got this great smile. I hate to tell them school’s right around the corner. I don’t want to ruin their fun today, but it is wonderful to be back here in this incredible community. I’m so grateful to be joined by some true public servants, starting with our Superintendent of the State Police who’s joined us. You’ll be hearing from Kevin Bruen momentarily. I want to thank him for his service.
County Executive Steve Bellone. Steve, what we went through during that pandemic really defines the character of an individual and your passion for doing what was right for your constituents, leaving no stone unturned – we heard from you if not daily, hourly, in terms of fighting for the protection of the health of your residents, and for that, I’m grateful for that and the countless other initiatives that we’ve worked on together, let’s give a great round applause for our County Executive.
Our Sheriff, Dr. Errol Toulon. I want to thank him for all, you know, putting on the uniform every day, wearing it proudly and letting people know that, you know, we support our law enforcement and they do their jobs and we’re there to thank them every chance we get. So, thank you, Sheriff, for your public service as well.
And someone who’s got their hands on every day is the Commissioner of the Police Department. And I want to thank our commissioner, Rodney Harrison, for what he does day in and day out to protect the people of this great county. So let’s give him a round of applause as well.
Monisha Henley, the Senior Director of State Government Affairs, Everytown for Gun Safety. This has been a force of change and change is happening. And I thank you and everyone who’s been supporting Everytown for many years now for truly making a difference in an area that we all care deeply about and that is our public safety.
And I know our elected officials, our senators, our assemblymembers were recognized, I want to give them just a round of applause for all of them because, they fight for you every single day in our state legislature.
It’s great to be back here. I think this is maybe my 300th plus trip out this way. Who’s counting? And I just want to say here, we’re talking about something that’s critically important. Something that I care very deeply about, and that is keeping New Yorkers safe. And I will say, as we begin this conversation, you know, we take the protection of every individual in our state, whether they’re a resident or a visitor, we take that very seriously.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
