Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — Rochester Regional Health marked a major milestone in public safety Friday as 18 security employees graduated as the health system’s first class of officially designated peace officers.
The graduation ceremony at Rochester General Hospital comes after years of growing concerns over safety incidents inside health care facilities, including an armed confrontation at the hospital in April, when armed armed man threatened a nurse while visiting a patient.
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Officials believe the new peace officer program will significantly strengthen the hospital system’s ability to respond to emergencies in real-time.
The program was made possible after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation in 2024 granting peace officer status to select hospital security employees. The designation gives trained officers expanded legal authority beyond traditional security roles.
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“What that means to us here at the hospital, essentially, is that our officers will be able to offer appearance tickets, make arrests, conduct searches, as well as confiscate illegal firearms and detain those individuals,” said Tammy Snyder, RRH’s senior vice president of system operations.
RRH already employs hundreds of armed security personnel across its system. RGH currently has about 60 security officers.
Officials tell 13WHAM the peace officer program will add another layer of protection for staff, patients and visitors.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello praised the graduates, calling the initiative a new benchmark for healthcare security.
“You are all setting a new standard for safety and service,” Bello said.
The newly sworn-in peace officers underwent months of extensive training from February through May, attending classes and exercises multiple days each week in preparation for their new responsibilities.
“It gives us a lot more responsibility overall, and gives us the ability to handle things in-house, as opposed to waiting for other law enforcement agencies to respond to us,” said Lieutenant Antwan Collier, one of the newly graduated peace officers.
Hospital leaders pointed to an incident in April, saying the peace officers could have changed the outcome of the security scare.
“Our security team acted very swiftly, and they were able to detain the individual almost immediately,” Snyder said. “But with the event that happened previously in April, we had to wait for RPD to come and arrest the individual. So now we’ll be able to do that in real time and transport that individual to the county jail.”
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According to officials, RGH will serve as the pilot location for the program beginning June 1. The health system plans to eventually expand the initiative to other locations within the health system.
Officials also say they hope to graduate additional classes of peace officers annually as the program grows.