Department of Investigation eyes NYPD disability pensions
HELP! I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN GET UP: A report from the New York City Department of Investigation confirmed today what many political watchers have long suspected — that the city’s police pension system is ripe for abuse. The Police Pension Fund doles out retirement payments to all NYPD officers and, in fiscal year 2025, paid $935 million to officers who qualified for accident disability retirement…
The New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) has investigated potential abuse within the NYPD pension system. According to DOI Commissioner Nadia Shihata, the pension system, which awards accident disability retirement to injured NYPD officers, assigns this distinction without considering an officer's specific job duties.
The report found the current administration of disability benefits to be vulnerable to misuse and inconsistent with standards used in other law enforcement retirement systems. The report cited former Chief of Department John Chell's $295,919 annual pension, awarded partly due to an ankle injury sustained in 2024, as an example of the system's potential for abuse.
Shihata suggested the pension board's broad standard might be unconstitutional, since courts have previously determined that job duty means what an officer actually does in practice. Despite this, the board rejected a DOI recommendation to change the standard. The DOI also pointed out that only one pensioner out of over $100 million annually paid to NYPD officers under the retirement age has been reexamined for their ability to work a different city job.
The pension system includes a provision to reevaluate officers not yet of retirement age, but the board has only reevaluated one pensioner since 2019.
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