By Elisabeth Strillacci

When a law enforcement officer retires in North Carolina, he or she has typically received a special separation allowance, essentially a pension, for every year of service until they turn 62, at which time Social Security kicks in.

Senate Bill 320, which is sponsored by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and co-sponsored by Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell), and Carl Ford (R-Rowan), will offer retirees a second option for collecting the allowance. The new option is designed to allow law enforcement officers to stay on the job longer than 30 years without forfeiting portions of the allowance.

Currently, once an officer serves 30 years, they are eligible to retire and to receive an allowance that is a percentage (0.85 percent) of their final year’s pay for each year they worked, but the payments stop at age 62.

Under the proposed bill, officers can work longer than 30 years, deferring the start of their allowance pay, and continuing to collect the allowance beyond age 62. That will give them longer payouts, but at lower amounts, because the salary that will be used to calculate benefits will be what the officer was making at the 30-year mark.

For example, if an officer reaches 30 years of service at age 52, but instead retires at age 57, payments will continue until age 67 (57 plus 62 minus 52) but at a lower amount since the annual pay will be calculated using whatever an officer’s annual income was at 30 years, and any raises or increases in the interim will not be considered.

In a release on the proposed bill, it was noted that by creating this new separation allowance calculation, the state can improve public safety by keeping officers on the job and potentially saving local governments money.

“Every day, our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect us,” said Ford. “We want the fine men and women to remain on the job for as long as possible, without them having to worry about being able to receive their separation benefits.”

“Law enforcement agencies across the state aren’t immune to the impacts of a tight labor market,” Berger added. “We want well-trained, veteran officers to stay on the force, so they can keep our communities safe and be examples for the next generation of officers. This bill will go a long way in helping accomplish that.”