Police shootings spur workers' compensation awards
By Luke Broadwater The Baltimore Sun 3:04 p.m. EDT, October 25, 2014
Ever since her bipolar, unarmed son was shot and killed during a struggle with Baltimore police, Marcella Holloman has felt a sense of soul-crushing loss. She breaks out into shakes and feels angry all the time. She sees other happy families — and resents them.
"My whole life is gone. I just don't like people the way I used to," says Holloman, 53, whose son, Maurice Johnson, was shot three times in 2012 in her living room in Northeast Baltimore. Holloman had called police because her son was having an angry 'episode,' she said.
The pain worsened thisyear when she found out that the officer who killed her son will receive about $30,000 in workers' compensation due to the psychological stress of the shooting — a type of payment that has sparked debate across the nation.
Twelve Baltimore police officers have sought workers' compensation for psychological stress in fatal shootings and similar deadly encounters in the 2011 to 2013 fiscal years, the most recent data available. The average award from a fatal incident was about $30,000, according to records The Baltimore Sun obtained through a series of Maryland Public Information Act requests.
Although Maryland's highest court ruled more than a decade ago that such payments are proper, other states have rejected claims from police officers seeking workers' compensation for the psychological stress of a fatal shooting.
South Carolina's top court ruled in 2012 that such awards were not permitted under state law because police are trained in using deadly force and it is therefore not "unusual or extraordinary." Using the same logic, a New York appeals court this year denied an officer's claim after a fatal shooting.
Police supporters and law enforcement experts say that the claims, which can cover medical costs plus awards for an officer's pain and suffering, are needed to help officers who develop psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is generally associated with soldiers in war zones, but is gaining more widespread acceptance as a part of many police officers' lives. Advocacy groups say that as many as 19 percent of all police officers in the country suffer from PTSD, which can be brought on by the steady pressure of facing danger while enforcing the law.
"It's a terrible thing to go through when you take a human life," says Steve Tabeling, a retired Baltimore police officer who shot and killed a robbery suspect decades ago, and later was the department's top investigator for police-involved shootings. "It's stress on both sides. It's stressful for the family and it's stressful for the officers."
More at link: Fatal police shootings in Baltimore spur PTSD claims, workers' compensation awards - carrollcountytimes.com
Can we just be honest and call it a bounty?
By Luke Broadwater The Baltimore Sun 3:04 p.m. EDT, October 25, 2014
Ever since her bipolar, unarmed son was shot and killed during a struggle with Baltimore police, Marcella Holloman has felt a sense of soul-crushing loss. She breaks out into shakes and feels angry all the time. She sees other happy families — and resents them.
"My whole life is gone. I just don't like people the way I used to," says Holloman, 53, whose son, Maurice Johnson, was shot three times in 2012 in her living room in Northeast Baltimore. Holloman had called police because her son was having an angry 'episode,' she said.
The pain worsened thisyear when she found out that the officer who killed her son will receive about $30,000 in workers' compensation due to the psychological stress of the shooting — a type of payment that has sparked debate across the nation.
Twelve Baltimore police officers have sought workers' compensation for psychological stress in fatal shootings and similar deadly encounters in the 2011 to 2013 fiscal years, the most recent data available. The average award from a fatal incident was about $30,000, according to records The Baltimore Sun obtained through a series of Maryland Public Information Act requests.
Although Maryland's highest court ruled more than a decade ago that such payments are proper, other states have rejected claims from police officers seeking workers' compensation for the psychological stress of a fatal shooting.
South Carolina's top court ruled in 2012 that such awards were not permitted under state law because police are trained in using deadly force and it is therefore not "unusual or extraordinary." Using the same logic, a New York appeals court this year denied an officer's claim after a fatal shooting.
Police supporters and law enforcement experts say that the claims, which can cover medical costs plus awards for an officer's pain and suffering, are needed to help officers who develop psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is generally associated with soldiers in war zones, but is gaining more widespread acceptance as a part of many police officers' lives. Advocacy groups say that as many as 19 percent of all police officers in the country suffer from PTSD, which can be brought on by the steady pressure of facing danger while enforcing the law.
"It's a terrible thing to go through when you take a human life," says Steve Tabeling, a retired Baltimore police officer who shot and killed a robbery suspect decades ago, and later was the department's top investigator for police-involved shootings. "It's stress on both sides. It's stressful for the family and it's stressful for the officers."
More at link: Fatal police shootings in Baltimore spur PTSD claims, workers' compensation awards - carrollcountytimes.com
Can we just be honest and call it a bounty?
