AG Calls for WC Fund to Pay for More Police Body Armor

Wednesday, July 25, 2018 | 0

Should an insurer pay for safety equipment for the workplace? 

A.G. Mike DeWine

Ohio's attorney general says yes, at least for law enforcement officers who need new body armor.

“Workplace safety is part of the mission of our workers’ compensation system,” A.G. Mike DeWine said in a statement this week to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. “Many police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state are suffering a financial pinch from the opioid crisis ... we need to ensure that the officers of these departments have state-of-the-art protection.”

DeWine, a Republican, is running for governor and is hoping to earn the endorsement of Ohio police organizations. He called on the state-run workers' compensation fund to spend almost $6 million to supply the ballistic vests.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, known for a large fiscal surplus and its multiple rebates for employers' safety and other programs, said recently it is setting aside $4 million for police agency safety programs. Some of that will go to body armor, a bureau spokesman told the newspaper.

But DeWine believes the bureau has enough reserves to spend nearly $6 million on the vests. 

The attorney general said he became aware of the need for more and better body armor after complaints that investigators in his own department were having to rely on vests that were past their five-year shelf life.

DeWine's Democratic opponent in the governor's race, Richard Cordray, said that DeWine had allowed his officers to wear expired vests until the news media brought attention to the issue.