Status: Enacted — Signed by Governor Wes Moore in 2024; phased implementation underway through 2025-2026 with the public-sector workplace violence prevention standard under MOSH development.
Bill Number: Maryland HB 176 / SB 26 (2024 regular session); the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act
Jurisdiction: Maryland
Category: Public-Sector Workplace Violence (Operational Mandate / Rulemaking)
Industries: Government, Public Health, Public Safety, Public Education, Public Healthcare
Enacted Date: 2024 regular session
Effective Date: October 1, 2024 (Act provisions); MOSH public-sector workplace violence prevention standard under rulemaking
Summary: The Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act — named for Maryland Parole and Probation Agent Davis Martinez, who was killed during a routine home visit in 2024 — creates a Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) Unit within the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) program. The unit is charged with regulating, administering, and enforcing workplace safety and health requirements for public-sector employers, expanding inspection authority over public worksites and exposing public employers to penalties for violations of workplace safety and health laws on parity with private-sector employers. Critically for the security and detection space, the Act directs MOSH to develop a Workplace Violence Prevention Standard for the public sector, the first state-level standard of its kind aimed squarely at government employers rather than healthcare or general industry.
The Act fills a long-standing gap: federal OSHA does not cover public-sector employees in most states, and Maryland’s prior MOSH framework had limited authority over state agencies and local governments. By creating PESH and a forthcoming public-sector workplace violence prevention standard, Maryland positions its parole and probation officers, social workers, public health nurses, public school staff, transit employees, and other government workers under an enforceable prevention framework.
Key Provisions:
- PESH Unit: Establishes a Public Employee Safety and Health Unit within MOSH with enforcement and inspection authority over public-sector employers.
- Inspection and Penalty Parity: Improves inspections of public-sector worksites and subjects public employers to penalties for violations of workplace safety and health laws.
- Public-Sector Workplace Violence Prevention Standard: Directs MOSH to develop and adopt a Workplace Violence Prevention Standard for the public sector, currently in rulemaking.
- Worker Protections: Strengthens reporting, training, and post-incident response obligations for covered public-sector employers.
Affected Entities: Maryland state agencies, county and municipal governments, public school districts, public healthcare facilities, transit authorities, parole and probation agencies, public social-service agencies, and any other public-sector employer covered by MOSH’s expanded jurisdiction.
Penalties and Enforcement: Enforcement runs through MOSH’s expanded inspection and penalty authority. Public-sector employers are now exposed to civil penalties for safety and health violations, with the specific penalty schedule for workplace violence prevention standard violations to be established through rulemaking.
IntelliSee Relevance: High — the Davis Martinez Act is unusual in that it explicitly extends a workplace violence prevention obligation to public employers across diverse settings (parole offices, public schools, transit hubs, social-service offices, public hospitals). Each of those environments runs on existing camera infrastructure that today is overwhelmingly forensic-only. As MOSH’s public-sector standard moves through rulemaking and operationalization, covered employers will need contemporaneous detection and incident-record evidence to demonstrate program compliance during inspection. IntelliSee’s AI-powered continuous monitoring — including AI weapon detection, fall detection, aggressive-behavior detection, and loitering detection — produces the time-stamped, location-tagged records that public-sector compliance officers and MOSH inspectors will expect.
Related Legislation & Resources
- California Workplace Violence Prevention – General Industry Standard (Cal/OSHA Rulemaking)
- OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention Standard (Rulemaking)
- The Joint Commission Workplace Violence Prevention Requirements (NPG 2a)
- Federal H.R. 2531 / S. 1232 — Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act
- IntelliSee for Government