Newspaper Editorial Board Endorses New Injured Officers' Charity

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 | 0

New Mexico's largest newspaper has endorsed a new charitable foundation that gives money to police officers who were wounded or traumatized on the job. 

In an editorial published Tuesday, the Albuquerque Journal editorial board wrote that the Albuquerque Police Foundation "is an effort worthy of citizens' support." 

"There’s a common misconception that when a police officer is killed or injured on the job, diagnosed with a medical condition that requires time off for treatment or faces some other event that prevents him or her from working, insurance, workers’ compensation or some other type of financial relief is readily available," the editorial board wrote. "But that's not always the case, and it's often not enough."

Police officers traumatized on the job do have a remedy in the New Mexico workers' compensation system, which, like 33 other states, allows claimants to receive benefits for work-linked mental injuries even if they are not accompanied by a physical injury. And police officers with work-linked physical injuries can turn to the workers' compensation system for relief, as in any state. 

But other costs tend to arise when a person suffers a life-threatening injury, even if an employer and carrier are fully cooperative and approve all treatment requests, which often isn't the case. The editorial board raised the examples of two officers who sustained huge injuries from run-ins with drunken drivers and ended up either litigating medical expenses or saddled with debt. 

"Both officers could have certainly used the resources that will now be available through the nonprofit foundation," the board wrote. 

Read the editorial here.