16
NEW JERSEY COPS ■ FEBRUARY 2014
LEGAL PROTECTION PLAN UPDATE
LPP makes a huge change to protect members
On Feb. 4, at the
State PBA Board of Delegates meeting, the
board
unanimously
approved the recommendations of the
Legal Protection Plan
Kevin C. Committee and added
coverage for our memLyons
bers who act under
legal authority of the
Law Enforcement Safety Act, commonly referred to as LEOSA or HR 218.
The coverage was changed to directly address the unfortunate situation
that Brother Joseph Walker, a member
of Hudson County Prosecutor's Office
Local 232, faced.
The discussions began in May 2013
when Brother Walker was charged with
murder, while legally possessing a
firearm in Maryland, under the law. He
was involved in a situation where he
was forced to use his firearm to protect
his family. Initially, a coverage request
ized that the laws had changed and the
plan had a hole in coverage.
Legal Protection Plan Committee Chair
Margaret Hammond explains the
changes in the plan to PBA members at
the state meeting on Feb. 4 in Atlantic
City.
was made verbally, and due to the
wording in the Legal Protection Plan
document and the fact that our members have no law enforcement powers
while out of state, coverage was confirmed for the disciplinary and denied
for the criminal and civil.
Following several conversations with
members from several locals, we real-
In January, Brother Walker was asked
to attend a LPP committee meeting in
order to discuss the possibility of changing the plan. After a very lengthy discussion with him and his State Delegate,
Matt Stimuli, the committee unanimously moved to change the plan document retroactive to the current plan
year to add civil and criminal coverage
to cover instances where a member was
legally carrying a firearm out of state
and was forced to act to protect himself
or others. The New Jersey State PBA has
the strongest HR 218 coverage that can
be found in the U.S.
This change shows, once again, why
there is no better organization than the
NJ State PBA for protecting our members, and the strength of the LPP Since
.
we completely own our plan, we can
make necessary changes without the
approval of a third party administrator
or an insurance company. d