Page 9 - June2020 FOP Magazine

SecondVice President’s Report
Will officers be protected from punitive damages?
Since my article in May’s issue, titled “COVID checkpoints” there has been no slow-down in the “pop-up” parties occurring in high-crime ar- eas. In fact, without argument, the numbers of overall public gatherings have increased, not to mention have become more violent, resulting in officers being injured. The enforcement of the governor’s executive order has also led to some church services being shut down, church park- ing banned and several churches being hit with
fines of $500 each.
The constitutionality of these actions has not been test-
ed, to my knowledge; however, many see the writing on the wall, so to speak. We still don’t have clarification on whether officers would be indemnified in the event of civil litigation resulting from these types of “enforcement action.” Even in the event that officers were to be indemnified, they could be tagged with punitive damages. In today’s society, putting “punitive” aka “punishment” in the hands of a jury...no need to say another word.
One would assume that indemnity would include punitive damages, since Article 22 states, “The Employer shall be re- sponsible for, hold Officers harmless from and pay for damag- es or monies which may be adjudged, assessed...”. Although not explicitly stated in the contract, past arbitration deci- sions set a precedent along with the state statute, 745 ILCS 10/2-302.
Although the law states, in essence, that the employer would be able to indemnify the employee (as it states in Arti- cle 22 of the contract), the law specifically states, “It is hereby declared to be the public policy of this State, however, that no local public entity may elect to indemnify an employee for any portion of a judgment representing an award of punitive or exemplary damages.” Furthermore, another condition that some members are not aware of is that attorney’s fees asso- ciated with punitive damages could also be the responsibil- ity of the officer. As I stated last month, many officers find themselves asking, “Why am I jeopardizing my livelihood when some people just refuse to listen?”
DAN GORMAN
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2020 9