Another Duty Disability Fumble

Yesterday, we summarized the plight of a wounded officer who has been forced into a "no-pay status" after being shot numerous times because the Pension Board won't speed up the approval process for officers grievously wounded in the Line of Duty.

We understand there are scammers. We understand scammers need to be weeded out. The way you do that is you properly investigate, properly get medical referrals, set up an annual medical check-in/evaluation, AND you properly prosecute the scammers, civilly for reimbursement and criminally for the fraud.

There seems to be a lack of political will to investigate and prosecute scammers. Which leads to bullshit like this (name withheld by request due to the Officer's circumstances):

• It was no surprise that [Officer X] would never return to duty, correct? Well, apparently to the pension board, it was. Not many people know this, (he is very quiet about it) but [Officer X] went into no pay status on 08 AUG 2022. I questioned a now retired member of the pension board, asking why the process was not mitigated knowing that [Officer X] would never come back. He really did not have an answer for me, and said “This is just how it is. It’s been this way for over 30 years, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s done this way to weed out people that are scamming. We create an atmosphere, where the officer is hungry and he has no idea when their next check is coming, so it wears them down. Many times they cannot continue to fight us due to their end of the legal costs and they give up, ultimately going back to work.”
  
  
  
  While I understand there being a need for a process for those on bullshit, in a case likes [Officer X] which is clear cut and dry, there needs to be a different protocol. It needs to protect the people who without a doubt will not return because of duty related injuries. EVERY copper who asked me about this had no idea that even in a situation such as this, you go into no pay and in turn have no insurance. Everyone assumed “oh they’ll make sure he’s ok, there’s no way he’ll be in no pay status”. And that can’t be further from the truth.
  
  
  
  [...] I’m also still furious Lappe insinuated to [Officer X] he could come back light duty and sit at a desk. [Officer X] was shot a total of 4 times, twice in the head. He died twice that night. He has hearing aids in both ears. He lost an eye. And Lappe suggested [Officer X] come back to work in some capacity. It still makes me sick.

Our e-mailer was furious over the treatment of Officer X. We're pretty sure most readers can pick out EXACTLY who Officer X is, but he is a private person and doesn't want to make waves. His situation was resolved eventually, but this is ridiculous that he even had to go through this. 

The FOP and the Pension Board need to revisit, reform, streamline and fix this process. We don't give a shit if it has "been this way for thirty years." We could list a few hundred things that have changed in the last thirty years - some of them were even good changes. Different classifications of woundings/injuries would be a good start, because these two examples we've cited involve Officers being either crippled or just short of Line of Duty Deaths by fractions of inches. 

They deserve so much better.