DROP Program Getting Negative Press
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times written by Jack Dolan, Gus Garcia-Roberts, and Ryan Menezes is spreading the word that the DROP program is riddled with problems. The big one, the reporters claim, allows veteran LAPD cops to work one shift, retire at double the pay, and then go out injured, sometimes for years.
The reporters claim that six years into the DROP program, there are serious problems, including reports that aging officers with bad backs and aching knees were joining and then immediately going out on long injury leaves — sometimes for years — at essentially twice the pay. This prompted police and fire unions to propose a solution: require everyone entering DROP to be on active duty.
In the decade since the rule’s creation, nearly 300 L.A. police and firefighters who joined the Deferred Retirement Option Plan took injury leaves within six months, according to the newspaper’s review of city payroll data and workers’ compensation records. Two started leaves on the very next shift, and many didn’t wait much longer.
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
