Particular attention has been
given in recent years to the high rates of disability retirement among police officers.
According to a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, 56% of all retiring police officers terminate employment
due to disability (National Conference of State Legislatures). Although concern
has been expressed in various jurisdictions over the increasing rates of disability retirement, the experience in Washington, D.C. has been extreme. In 1969, for example, 98% of all police had retired
on disability.
Police retirement pensions generally
provide disability retirement eligibility after five years of service. Disability
retirement payments range between one-third and three-quarters of the officer’s annual average salary. Information received from four major metropolitan areas, Chicago, Houston, New
York and San Francisco, indicated that the average age of disability
for police was ten to twelve years less than the average of other service employees.
In general, police disability retirees were in their early forties.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), protective
service workers reported higher than average occurrences of acute conditions over a one-year period. Fifty-three point eight percent reported that they had seen a physician regarding their health problems. Acute conditions included injuries (18.8%), respiratory conditions (50.1%), digestive
conditions (4.4%) and infectious conditions (9.7%).
Several chronic disabling conditions
had high occurrences among protective service workers. Rates for diabetes were
almost twice that of all other occupations, 50% higher for rates of heart disease, 40% higher for chronic bronchitis, 10%
higher for asthma, 25% higher for arthritis, 10% higher for back problems and 3% higher for ulcers.
From these findings, it appears
that protective service workers as a group, which include a variety of law enforcement and police functions, suffer significantly
from both acute and chronic disabling conditions. This is not only evident in
statistics, but also in the perceptions of protective workers. When NCHS conducted
their survey, they asked workers to assess their health status as “excellent, very good, good, fair or poor,”
approximately 7.2% of the protective service work force responded that their health was poor.
This response was higher than average for all occupations. The problem
certainly exists and must be addressed by police administration and health professionals.
ATTITUDES TOWARD DISABILITY
The definition and use of disability
pensions in police work remains ambiguous. Police administration can use this
type of pension to eliminate problem officers, while some officers can use it to get out of police work with a lucrative pension. It appears that the original intention of disability pensions, to assist disabled
officers, has become distorted.
In some cases, officers who get
a disability retirement are admired by peers. They view this as a victory over
the police system. A police officer commented on a recent fellow officer who
received a disability pension after ten years of service:
I don’t blame the guy for taking a disability. Otherwise, he would
have had to put in another ten years for his retirement pension. Why should he? He didn’t like his job anyway, so this was a good opportunity to make out like
a bandit. It’s not a bad deal…three quarters of his salary for the
rest of his life and tax-free. I could use that myself.
Comments like this are common
among police officers. Some see the disability pension as an easy way to retire. However, it is generally a minority of officers who use the system. The majority of police officers like their job and want to remain on the force. When these officers are forced into a disability retirement, they may experience adjustment difficulties.
ASSISTING DISABLED OFFICERS
When a police officer is injured
in the line of duty or disabled due to a disease, he or she may be forced to retire on disability. However, police officers lose more than their health when they become disabled; they also lose their identity. Often, the disable officer is forgotten both by the department and fellow officers. To assist the disabled officer, it is first necessary to become aware of certain stages
that he or she may experience after the injury occurs.
STAGES OF DISABILITY
RECOVERY
Richards (1990) has outlined
several stages of recovery form injury that may apply to disable police officers. They
are: 1. The survival honeymoon; 2. adjustment shock; and 3. recovery.
The survival honeymoon usually
lasts from four to twelve weeks and is a welcome period during which officers gain strength.
During this stage, survivors will frequently involve themselves in activities that will prove their normality. However optimistic and encouraged the survivor may be at this point, their only reality
is that they are alive. They have not yet grasped the full impact of possible
limitations and lifestyle adjustments.
Following the survival honeymoon
is what Richards refers to as adjustment shock.
Officers injured or traumatized
may begin to feel unsure of themselves and their abilities to cope with the future.
They begin to experience less attention from friends and family. Soon,
no one calls or stops in to see them. This may leave the disabled person isolated
and alone. In cases of serious physical injury or disfigurement, the survivors
become keenly aware of their different and abnormal condition. Survivors may
also feel guilty for failing to meet their recovery goals. Often, they blame
themselves for not trying hard enough.
The recovery stage occurs when
the injured person shows signs of successful adjustment to the event or injury. Losses
or physical limitations are accepted and overcome as best as possible. One fo
the first encouraging signs of recovery is when survivors can talk about their life-changing event comfortably and discuss
how they have adapted to the situation.
Police officers are not the only
ones who experience the effects of a disability. The officer’s family experiences
its own shock, fears, anguish and expressions as a result of the officer’s ordeal.
Richards comments on the affects on families:
Children are especially vulnerable. They can become confused because they don’t understand the dramatic changes
that are happening, either physically or emotionally. Often they interpret events
as a rejection by their parents or as if somehow they are being blamed for all the hurt and unhappiness they sense. Children need constant loving attention, and strong reassurances throughout the entire recovery period…spouses
are usually the ones with the most difficult struggle. Typically, they are torn
between two extremes: on the one hand, they don’t want to accept major life adjustments.
They continually hope that life will return to what it was before the injury.
On the other hand, they see physical and emotional problems and realize that life will never be the same (p.53).
Thus, police families of disable
officers require just as much love and compassion as the officer does. Often,
the attention of everyone is on the disabled officer, at least in the beginning, and the family is left without support or
care. Later, both are left with the support of friends or the department.
COUNSELING THE DISABLED
OFFICER
Providing help for the disabled
police officer is not an easy task. Police officers are a special breed, they
are proud. Most officers have an attitude which may work against them in terms
of rehabilitation. They expect too much of themselves because they are police
officers, and tend to forget that they are human. Imagine the psychological let-down
when the actually do get injured or incapacitated.
Agent Jim Horn of the FBI Critical
Incident Team often mentions the case of the agent who was shot in an ambush situation.
Jim counseled the agent and happened to ask him a question: “You
were hurt pretty bad, yet you didn’t cry or complain at all.” In
confidence, the young man told him that he was suffering from terrible pain but that he couldn’t cry in front of his
peers. His comment to Jim was that “John Wayne never cried.” For the police counselor, this type of macho image is difficult to break through.
Becoming disabled in an environment
where health, strength and good physical functioning are the ideal can be psychologically difficult. Fellow police officers should be made aware of these complications.
Many officers view their disabled comrades as useless simply because they can no longer fulfill police duties. Nothing could be further form the truth. Other
officers are cynical towards disability-retired officers, viewing them as taking advantage of the system. The disabled officer may thus experience prejudice from society and his/her own peers.
DISABLED POLICE OFFICER
GROUPS
The group is a useful tool for
the disabled police officer to reach out and share problems with peers in a safe environment.
Groups can facilitate the transition from police work to civilian retirement, especially in cases of disability. Detective Richard Pastorella, mentioned earlier in this article, started a group to
help disabled officers cope with their problems and to educate other officers about disability. To date, his program has been very successful.
Tom Williams, Director of the
Post
Trauma Treatment Center in Aurora, Colorado, was one of the first to formally apply the group concept for disable police officers. His contention was that law enforcement is a way of life, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and
that it affects all aspects of one’s life. A loss of that life is potentially
devastating.
Dr. William’s first groups
consisted of twelve police officers with various problems. They have lost their
jobs due to law violations, accumulated job stress, shootings, medical injuries and police combat wounds. The overall theme was that years of good service to the department were soon forgotten the moment the officer
became disabled or separated. Resultant feelings of rejection by the department
and their brother officers were hard to overcome.
Group members often expressed
the feeling that former peers saw them as diseased. If the working officer accepted
the reality of police disability, it seemed to make the feel vulnerable and unsafe, feelings not congruent with being in control
on the street. The working officer would rather blame the disabled officer than
the job. Police officers in Williams’ group felt penalized by their former
peers.
Williams found that the loss
of a power base, mystique, respect, the ability to control others and instant deference left many officers in the group feeling
powerless and confused. There seemed to be no employment or retirement hobby
that could replace the authority and responsibility they had in law enforcement. Most
had wanted to be cops all their lives and could not envision themselves in any other occupation. These feelings, coupled with a disability, devastated most of the officers.
It is evident that disability
leads to serious adjustment difficulties for police officers. Perhaps two factors
can help to alleviate the pain. First, it is important that disabled police officers
not be abandoned and forgotten by peers and the department. For most officers,
this appeared to be worse than the physical injury itself. Secondly, police officers
should perhaps reconsider the need for help from professionals or peer counseling groups.
They are, after all, human first, police officers second. Paulie Ciurcina,
a highly decorated officer who left the New York City Police Department on a disability discharge, said it best:
This job took my dignity
from me…You can’t be ashamed to go to a therapist. You deserve to
know why, after you pick up a dead child, you go home and cry like a baby in the corner.
If a cop asks for help, you should be proud of him. PROUD! (Quoted in Hirschfield, 1986, p.26)
REFERENCES
Collins, Gary: Health Characteristics
by
Occupation and Industry:
United States.
National Center for Health Statistics. Vital
Health Stat 10(70), 1989
Hirschfield, N; Injured in
the Line of Duty.
Daily News Magazine, New York, October
26, 1986.
