Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck acknowledged a need to reform a controversial pension program that pays city police officers and firefighters nearly double at the end of their careers while allowing them to take lengthy injury leaves, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In remarks at a budget meeting this week, Beck said concerns about injury leaves for those in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan — better known as DROP — were “well-founded” and expressed support for changing the policy to “de-incentivize” taking injury leave while in the program.
“Unfortunately, when the program was crafted 15 years ago, that wasn’t done,” Beck said of DROP.
Beck’s remarks were in response to a Los Angeles Times investigation that showed that nearly half of DROP participants in the previous decade missed work while in the program because of injuries ranging from cumulative ailments like carpal tunnel syndrome and high blood pressure to a fall from a defective office chair.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.