Officer Can't Claim Coverage Under Public Safety Employee Benefits Act for Training Injury

The Illinois Appellate Court last week ruled that a police officer who suffered a career-ending injury during a training exercise was not entitled to coverage under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act. The act provides lifetime medical insurance for police, firefighters and their families if they are catastrophically injured in the line of duty. While there was no dispute that Jennifer Beckman qualified as catastrophically injured, the court said her injuries did not occur in response to what she could have “reasonably believed to be an emergency,” and that was fatal to ...