Officers’ Rights
Documentation is key if you are
injured on a call, especially
in another jurisdiction
There are a variety of reasons why a law en-
forcement officer may have to respond to a call in
a neighboring or sister jurisdiction. Some of those
reasons include manpower shortages, critical in-
cidents and increased presence to combat sudden
upticks in crime.
Unfortunately, when responding to a sister ju-
risdiction,
there is always less written documenta-
STUART
tion that law enforcement officers from the back-
ALTERMAN up jurisdictions were present. If any reports are
written, the law enforcement officers from the pri-
mary jurisdiction tend to author them. In those reports, there
may or may not be mention of backup law enforcement officers
from other jurisdictions. Even if those backup law enforcement
officers are mentioned in a report, it is usually by town or mu-
nicipality and not with specificity. The backup law enforcement
officers seldom author their own reports unless something sub-
stantial or significant occurred. There may be audio transmis-
sions that backup officers from another jurisdiction responded
to a call. However, most times the only real proof that a backup
law enforcement officer responded to a sister jurisdiction is the
CAD report. Most CAD reports are difficult for an average reader
to decipher.
If nothing happens to the law enforcement officer backing
up a call in a sister jurisdiction, none of this matters. But what
happens if the backup law enforcement officer somehow gets
hurt at some point on the call in the sister jurisdiction? The lack
of adequate documentation can sometimes come back to bite
officers.
How, you may ask? Let me give you an example from a real
case. A jurisdiction puts out a radio call of an active burglary
in progress. Law enforcement officers from that jurisdiction
and two neighboring jurisdictions respond. It is late at night.
It is a large, remote, fenced-in land bordering dense forest. The
three groups of law enforcement officers set up a perimeter and
skirmish line and begin a grid search of properties. The search
requires the law enforcement officers to jump over several fenc-
es. One law enforcement officer injures his ankle traversing one
of the fences, but continues on. After 90 minutes, the search is
called off. The injured officer, based on adrenaline, shakes off
his ankle injury, returns to his jurisdiction and completes his
shift.
The next morning, the law enforcement officer, after remov-
ing his boot and trying to go to sleep, realizes his injury may be
more significant than he first thought. He takes a photograph
of the injury and sends it to his OIC. His OIC tells him to go to
the hospital, if needed. However, it is the weekend. So, the law
enforcement officer waits until Monday (two days later) to go to
the emergency room.
The law enforcement officer already had an open workers’
compensation case for another injury to the same leg that oc-
curred in his own jurisdiction. However, he did not have a work-
ers’ compensation attorney for that claim. The workers’ com-
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ DECEMBER 2018
pensation insurance adjuster tells him to see the same doctors.
The law enforcement officer is happy. He is getting the neces-
sary medical treatment he needs for both injuries to his right
leg.
Unfortunately, after months of treatment and several surger-
ies, the law enforcement officer realizes he is not getting better.
Doctors start telling him that he may not be able to return to
active duty. He comes to the difficult decision that he must ap-
ply for an accidental disability pension. He has still not hired a
workers’ compensation attorney for either claim.
He hires an attorney to help process the disability pension
application. The application sets forth that both right leg inju-
ries combined to result in the total and permanent disability.
Another nine months goes by before the pension board issues
its decision. Its decision stuns the law enforcement officer.
He is found to be completely and totally disabled. However,
his pension is denied because the pension board found that
his second injury that occurred in a sister jurisdiction “was not
identifiable as to time and place,” “was not undesigned and un-
expected” and “did not occur during and as a result of the per-
formance of his regular and assigned duties.” Why? The pen-
sion board found a lack of adequate documentation that the
second incident in the sister jurisdiction occurred.
The law enforcement officer is forced to file an appeal of the
pension board’s denial. His appeal essentially boils down to
having to prove he was in the sister jurisdiction on the night
in question, he was on duty at the time, and he was injured in
the course and scope of those duties. Sounds easy, right? Think
again.
No one from the law enforcement officer’s own jurisdiction
authored a report on the night in question. Logically, he and his
attorneys make inquiry of the sister jurisdiction. One of the pri-
mary responding officers did author a report of the active bur-
glary, which also details the establishment of a perimeter and
skirmish line. While the report does not identify with specificity
the law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions that pro-
vided backup, it at least identified his jurisdiction as being pres-
ent. It is a start.
The law enforcement officer then goes to dispatch for copies
of the audio recordings from the call that night. Unfortunately,
it is 18 months later. If audio recordings are not flagged within
30 days, they are not kept by the municipality. Strike one.
The law enforcement officer then checks his own cellular tele-
phone for the text message and photograph of his injury sent
to his OIC. But then he remembered having gotten a new tele-
phone in the past 12 months and not transferring the contents
from his old cellular telephone to his new cellular telephone. He
then checks with his OIC. The OIC had also replaced his cellular
telephone in the interim, and he has neither the text message
nor the photograph. Moreover, the OIC did not author a sep-
arate injury report because the workers’ compensation carrier
was already processing the bills under the old injury claim, and
there was no need. Strike two.