(40 ILCS 5/3-114.6)
Sec. 3-114.6.
Occupational disease disability pension.
(a) This Section applies only to police officers who are employed by a
municipality with a combined police and fire department and who have regular
firefighting duties in addition to their law enforcement duties.
(b) The General Assembly finds that service in a police department that also
has firefighting duties requires officers to perform unusual tasks in times of
stress and danger; that officers are subject to exposure to extreme heat or
extreme cold in certain seasons while performing their duties; that they are
required to work in the midst of and are subject to heavy smoke fumes and
carcinogenic, poisonous, toxic, or chemical gases from fires; and that these
conditions exist and arise out of or in the course of employment.
(c) An active officer with 5 or more years of creditable service who is
found to be unable to perform his or her duties in the department by reason
of heart disease, stroke, tuberculosis, or any disease of the lungs or
respiratory tract, resulting from service as an officer, is entitled to an
occupational disease disability pension during any period of such disability
for which he or she has no right to receive salary.
An active officer who has completed 5 or more years of service and is unable
to perform his or her duties in the department by reason of a disabling cancer,
which develops or manifests itself during a period while the officer is in the
service of the department, is entitled to receive an occupational disease
disability benefit during any period of such disability for which he or she
does not have a right to receive salary. In order to receive this occupational
disease disability benefit, (i) the cancer must be of a type that may
be caused by exposure to heat, radiation, or a known carcinogen as defined by
the International Agency for Research on Cancer and (ii) the cancer must (and
is rebuttably presumed to) arise as a result of service as an officer.
An officer who, after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1998,
enters the service of a combined police and fire department and has regular
firefighting duties shall be examined by one or more practicing physicians
appointed by the board. If the examination discloses impairment of the heart,
lungs, or respiratory tract, or the existence of cancer, the officer shall not
be entitled to an occupational disease disability pension under this Section
unless and until a subsequent examination reveals no such impairment or cancer.
The occupational disease disability pension shall be equal to the greater
of 65% of the salary
attached to the rank held by the officer at the time of his or her removal
from the municipality's department payroll or (2) the retirement pension that
the police officer would be eligible to receive if he or she retired (but not
including any automatic annual increase in that retirement pension).
The occupational disease disability pension is payable to the officer
during the period of the disability. If the disability ceases before the
death of the officer, the disability pension payable under this Section
shall also cease and the officer thereafter shall receive such pension
benefits as are provided in accordance with other provisions of this Article.
If an officer dies while still disabled and receiving a disability pension
under this Section, the disability pension shall continue to be paid to
the officer's survivors in the sequence provided in Section 3-112.
(Source: P.A. 90-766, eff. 8-14-98; 91-939, eff. 2-1-01.)
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