Ohio’s largest police union is asking lawmakers to change the state’s workers’ compensation law to cover more claims for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mike Weinman

Current law covers PTSD for first responders only if it is accompanied by a physical injury.

“You know, it’s an accumulation of traumatic events, and then there’s a trigger,” Mike Weinman, director of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, told WOSU Radio. “So seeing my partner getting shot and killed would be a trigger to the 20 years of things I’ve seen over the course of a career.”

The state Senate has passed bills allowing PTSD coverage for first responders who were not physically injured, but the House has voted those measures down. The most recent legislation was SB 5 from 2015.