Medical Or Disability Retirement

[Bodie]

I know in Ohio and many other states a Medical Or Disaability Retirement means you are only retired from being a law enforcmenet officer similiar to the same plan firefighters have.

This means you can start another career, get an education in another field, or work at another job while still retaining your retirement. You are only retired from leo as a career.

The catch is if you return to law enforcment in any capacity in any location in the country you will loose your benefits. I have read at least two bio's where the writer claims to be on a medical retirement from an leo career yet is now in another state working as a leo or even just as a reserve which also nixes your benefits. The states figure if you can do the job as a volunteer you can go back to work in the career full time thus saving them funds.

Anybody else caught on to this in different bio's etc. ?

[pkagel]

I've seen it once but didn't really think anything of it. Are you sure they are acting as real officers or are they working for a department in training which wouldn't kill their sweet tax free paycheck.

[Bodie]

After working for many yeras with the laws that govern this any Re employment volunteer or not gets the "sweet" check stopped

[L-1]

In California. you only lose your disability benefits if you start performing a job that has the same physical duties as those of the job from which you retired. For example, my agency requires that you be able to extract a 200 pound victim from a car and then lift, drag or carry them 50 feet. They also require you to be able to physically subdue a combative subject after a 100 yard foot chase.

However, there are a lot of peace officer jobs out there that don't have such strenuous requirements (Chief of Police, District Attorney's Investigator, etc.)
Taking one of those jobs will not cause you to lose your disability pension.

As a side note, in California if your disability pension is cancelled and you are under 50, your agency is required by law to give you back your old job with the same rank, seniority and benefits. If you are over 50, you will not lose your pension. Instead, it will simply go from being 50% tax free to 100% taxable.

[mach4]

I started as a reserve and then was a full time deputy for almost 5 years. After having surgery for cancer I felt I wasn't physically able to meet the job requirements for being a patrol deputy so I left the department. I have another job and never got disabliity benefits so I can't help you out. I give the guys that work my area info and help out a few agencies when they need me. Guess it all depends on the department and the conditions of leaving.