Fixes disability disparity between municipal and public university/college officers
SPRINGFIELD Even though university and college police officers are increasingly being called upon to the same types of dangerous situations as the Champaign and Urbana police, they won’t be treated the same if they are seriously injured protecting our communities. Legislation filed by State Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), and recently signed into law by the Governor, fixes the discrepancy.
“The bad guys don’t care what department an officer works for,” said Rose. “Public university and community college sworn officers face the same life or death situations as municipal police, and they should be treated the same if they get hurt protecting our communities.”
Under previous law, municipal police who are disabled in the line of duty receive 15% more line-of-duty disability pay than those who do the same job but work for public university or community college. Rose’s legislation, Senate Bill 1115, equalizes the disability benefit for sworn all public university and community college police department sworn officers to the same level as municipal officers.
“As a former prosecutor, I stand with all of our brave men and women in BLUE. Moving this bill forward is one small step I could take as the Senator for the 51st District to let them know that I appreciate their sacrifice and service helping to make our communities a safer place to live,” Rose concluded.