By: George Brown

American Police Veterans Founder

Law enforcement today is a tough and dangerous profession. America is pretty good about reporting law enforcement deaths. Yes, they do record every occurrence of a law enforcement officer's ultimate sacrifice. You will find the names and circumstances of in the 'Line of Duty Death' (LODD) on scores of web sites and memorials.

 

The story surely does not end there. It is time to chronicle the penultimate sacrifice called permanent disability

 

Disability is truly the next to the last sacrifice a law enforcement officer makes. The distinction between disability and death can be broad or very narrow. Some law enforcement officers come perilously close to the threshold of ultimate sacrifice. Officers can be saved by medical or divine intervention.  For the most part they appear indifferent to the ultimate conclusion.

 

It could be stated, that all law enforcement officers that die in the line of duty have been disabled at least momentarily before their demise. Fate deals a cruel reality upon those with families and significant others they leave behind. The disabled officers that dies are held in high esteem, dutifully buried with honor and reverence. For some, their families are provided for in the manner and spirit of the law. They may encounter challenges, but a vast support network is poised to embrace them.

 

Pensions are often provided to the family for the deceased officers full wages. The federal government pays a substantial one-time death benefit, Public Safety Officers Benefit PSOB. In many cases if the officer leaves no spouse or dependents, the award will be paid to some non-financially dependent relative.

 

However devastating the loss of the officers life may be to the family, it may be the penultimate sacrifice a law enforcement family may make. The ultimate sacrifice for a police family may very well be living with an officer that has escaped the throngs of death. When a catastrophic injury occurs in the line of duty and a death certificate is not issued, police families enter the maelstrom of destructive governance.

 

A critically injured officer's family is unlikely to escape the personal and professional isolation that will follow. The volunteers from 'Concerns of Police Survivors' (COPS) will leave once the news of survival has reached their ears. Far to often the agency and the reporters have already exited. Often before a critically injured officer makes it home, the support systems will have evaporated if they were present at all

.

In all reality, there will be no one there. There will not be any protocol. There will be no financial assistance or legal advocates. The family will enter an abyss of social, political, legal and financial isolation. In America, there are thousands of retirement systems. There are thousands of law enforcement departments. We have public safety retirement systems that seemingly reinvent themselves every time a cop gets injured. There are worker's compensation / no worker's compensation states. There are hybrid worker's compensation plus or proportionally allocated assistance. Most are organizationally segregated resulting in multiple retirement paths. In some states they even bar disability retirement where a subsequent duty injury exacerbates a previous duty injury.

 

The choice of the terms maelstrom and abyss are the most appropriate and descriptive terms to start any discussion on police disability. America has covered up the facts on police disability. They do not collect them, nor do they publicize them. It is almost criminal how the American government and its political subdivisions cover up the scope and breadth of law enforcement disability. While it is not a conspiracy of action, it is one or indifference, contempt and omission.

 

For the cop that does not take their final breath before the retirement papers are signed, they find that they may not be! Public retirement systems do everything they can to make sure that they do not pay, no matter what the cost may be to the disabled officer and their family.

 

For the disabled officers family the sacrifice they will endure is often horrific. The social, political and fraternal abandonment may have devastating effects on the injured officer. The officer’s world will be suddenly foreign. Few if any of the support and coping tools will be available. Physical disability often forces these officers self imposed family and social isolation. Income will suddenly be limited. Another family wage earner may be forced to leave gainful employment to care for the officer.

 

Medical and personal care expensed are often denied injured officers. Often pay will be threatened and even stopped. A family’s good credit can be quickly destroyed due to the indifference of any one of the role players in the disability process. Officers often must get approval for each end every medical procedure and examination.

 

Pay prior to or at attaining a duty related disability is often a fraction of the officer's full compensation. Medical payments typically end at the time of pension. Insurance is often disrupted. In one jurisdiction, accidental disability pensioners must pay 100% of their insurance premiums until age 55. Upon attaining age 55, the state pays 100% of the insurance. Apparently in New Jersey, disability pensions are apportioned for officers with less that 11 years service. This means that the most vulnerable class of law enforcement officers (young with small children) and their families are at the greatest financial risk.

 

To make matters worse many states and the federal government have lump and family educational financial grants for disabled officers and their families. While they look good on paper, most often they are never paid to a disabled officer or the family.

 

In the event that an officer may return to some gainful employment, there are often many traps set to snare any economic benefit to the family.

 

Obviously, for a deceased officer the financial security of a pension lasts longer than the officer's lifetime. But less obviously, the family of a deceased disabled law enforcement officer will see that family members financial contribution end on the day of death.

 

I have completed a limited and non-scientific study and found that those suffering duty related permanent disability closely mirror those that have died in the line of duty. They are young men and women with families. They are far from the financial ability to provide for economic security at normal retirement. They have children to feed, nurture and educate. They are paying for their education and looking to provide a college education for their children. Their houses are heavily mortgaged. They often had to supplement their income with additional employment of extra duty. Many have not paid into social security and when they have they’ll face a WEP/GPO offset or a state pension offset scheme that will deny them social security.

 

The family of a police survivor may be the least likely family to survive intact, educate their children and maintain their home into retirement.

 

The ultimate sacrifice of a law enforcement family is found in the faces of the children. The confused understanding that a parent is no longer has a place in the community once guarded. How confusing it is to understand the burden placed upon their family because, “Dad or Mom became a cop because they wanted to help people!” and there is no one to help them.