officers - The Black Vault

•
•
·bef~~ lli; io/Angele~ ·:B;~d6f
· Pension Co~ssioners, agreed. ·
. "You ~an't · :really ·profit . from
, your .owp. wrongdoing;" he said.
"The staff here· is ·very :good at
investigating claims.' A~d this
board is very good at weeding out
those who are just tryiilg to salvage
something out of. being fired.''
he Los A~geles pension board
T hearings, :held each ·Thursday,
1
are unique in that there is perhaps:,
no other public setting ·where po-" ·
, t lice officers accused of brutality,
' racism, neglect of duty and other
misconduct speak openly and candidly
of the dark side of enforcing
i, thelaw. ·
{ They describe incidents where
they perhaps shot an innocent
person, or froze at the trigger when
they should haye killed an armed .
suspect. They describe grand jury
investigations, interrogations by
• the police Internal Affairs Division,
job suspensions and terminations,
intense media pressure, th~ breakup
of friendships at work and, for
many of them, divorce and .long
hours spent contemplating suicide.
They describe frayed nerves,
hypertension, headaches and depression.
One officer told how the
hair on his head and hands.fell out.
Another described purple splotches
that broke out on his face.
Several suddenly gained weight-
30 and 40 pound_s-~n~ . still
couldn't stop pulling into fast-food
restaurants.
Few if any of them make it
through the pension hearing without
reaching for the box of Kleenex
at the witness table.
"If there's a strong discipline
case against an officer, then there's
a strong chance the guy's going to
come over ·here for a disability
pension," said Gary Mattingly,
>r .. -). .... - ...........
r ·, . ,·! • . .•
general manager.cif thEl.Los Angeles
pension board.,..". 0: ,•
"He knows he's:not going to get
another promotjon or.a better asi
· signment. He might feel his career
1 isruined and :he's embarrassed. He
i might realize the only alternative
, is to get out.~' .
L
'
P.olice . agencies throughout
I Southern ·california have ·different
I apprpaches to handling stress
!. ~ ' •. . • ;\'{;t
claims .. ,:i~.: . • . BY
In San Diego, the City {~ounoit
voted in ~982 to no longer offer-. ,
stress retirements to new. police:
offic.ers. ·At tha,t time, San· DiegO:'
'was experiencing a high number ,m,
police officers being shot in tbe linl!'
of duty, and ·a growing .number .bf
• stress pension claims was threat!~
ening an already-tight city:budg~~J5. I His San Diego attorney, James
; Lawrence Grissom, the city's Gatley, said Mattingly suffered deretirement
director, said that since pression, anxiety and insomnia, not
1982, San Diego has seen a 50% to out of guilt for.using the stun gun,
75% reduction in stress claims. He . but because he felt rejected by his
said police recruits hired since that "police family."
time are advised .of the change "It became a case where the
from the outset.
family caved in on him," Gattey
~"We tell them that at orienta- said.
tion, righ~.out th~re}t the training Jn Orange County, former Stanaca?emy,
~e srud. I run t~rough ton Officer Anthony Sperl
tJ;lerr benefits and I emphasize the formed a California Police Stress
fact that t.pere is no stress disabili- Institute and traveled the country
ty.fo~ San Diego police officers." holding training ·seminars for po-
:;9nssom also noted that many lice recruits. Sperl brought to the
officers who win stress pensions go counseling group a bit of firsthand
on to find work elsew~ere.
"One guy is a chief of security
expertise-he retired on a stress
pension himself after mistaking a
for a private firm," he said. "An- toy gun for a real weapon· and
other i~ a contractor. Another's a fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy
truck driver."
.other police officers blame their
in 1983.
"I've seen cases where one guy,
stress problems on feelings of be- who was living with me, was so
tr.ayal by their colleagues and su- stressed out he woke up in the
periors. · morning drinking and he was
·Sgt. Charles Mattingly was drunk by 8 a.m.," Sperl recalled.
awarded a stress pension after he "He worked a high-crime area for
was disciplined for shooting a San 20 ye·ars and couldn't take it any
Diego drug suspect with an electric longer. He's ·out in Iowa now
stun gun in 1987. The suspect later playing Joe Farmer.
died, and the San Diego Police "But I've seen other cases of
Department, under a barrage of guys who !ll'e marginal, guys who
negative media coverage, blamed
Mattingly.
are having problems with the
LAPD, say, and they want to take
·Jn the end, the sergeant took his the heat off them. There's a real
.stress retirement money, quit the fine line here. Oftentimes, it's just
.. pplice force and returned home to the ~otoriety that ruins you as a
Cplorado.
police officer.''