Senate Begins Debate on Workers’ Compensation for Police Officers Involved in Animal Confronttations

The Senate is on the verge of voting on a bill that would provide workers’ comp benefits to police officers, including state police, for mental and emotional distress such as the one in Stamford who shot, at close range, the 220-pound chimpanzee that nearly killed a woman in Stamford last year. “We have not changed in any way the existing law the police officers covered under workers’ compensation,” said Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, noting that DEP conservation officers would not be covered.