An astounding Reason Magazine article reports that a majority of LAPD cops and LA City firefighters are “retiring” at a young age as “disabled” millionaires. The City’s “Defined Retirement Option Plan” (DROP), allows police and firefighters, eligible for a pension equaling 90 percent of the average of their final years’ pay at age 50, to keep working and receive their full retirement and salary.
(And frequently, the Departments promote cops and firefighters to a lucrative “chief” position in their final year to maximize the pay analysis for their pension.)
After signing up for the “DROP” program, some police and firefighters then take disability leave and are paid while they stay at home recovering from their “injuries.” They can often be seen at elite country clubs and casino resorts golfing and gambling away while on “disability.”
The LA Times’ analysis found that “more than a third (36 percent) of police officers who entered the program went out on injury leave. At the fire department, it was 70 percent.”
