With the bill pointing to interactions between emergency workers and violent, angry and mentally unstable people, a Senate committee Tuesday supported granting a public-records exemption to paramedics and emergency-medical technicians.
The Senate Health Policy Committee approved the bill (SB 320), filed by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, with little discussion.
The proposal would allow information such as home addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth of paramedics and emergency-medical technicians to be exempt from disclosure under the state's public-records law.
"They often deal with violent, angry, or mentally unstable individuals,'' the bill says.
"As a result, the Legislature finds that release of identifying and location information of emergency medical technicians or paramedics … or the spouses and children of such emergency medical technicians or paramedics, could place them in danger of being physically or emotionally harmed or stalked by a person who has a hostile reaction to his or her encounter with such emergency medical technicians or paramedics."