Governor Kathy Hochul

State Police requests for protection orders under New York’s updated Red Flag law have increased 93% from 2021.

Governor Kathy Hochul said more Extreme Risk Protection Orders applications have been filed in the last three months than in all of 2021.

The increase comes after Hochul issued an Executive Order in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, “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. And on June 6th, I signed into state law, that that expanded it to all law enforcement agencies. So now, when the signs are there, they can immediately get guns out of the hands of these individuals. They do it temporarily at first, there’s a judge involved, and then you determine whether or not that needs to be permanent.”

A total of 832 temporary and final ERPOs have been issued in New York State in the past three months (May – August 2022), compared to the 1,424 issued from August 2019 to April 2022.

State Police have filed 184 red flag applications since Governor Hochul signed the Executive Order on May 18, 2022, a more than 93 percent increase over the 95 orders filed by State Police in all of 2021.

Suffolk County has been a leader in utilizing ERPOs since the Red Flag Law was enacted in August of 2019. Since the week of May 16, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office has served 114 protection orders, a more than 75 percent increase compared with all of 2021.