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In the award sustaining the Lodge’s grievance, the arbitrator noted that several arbitrators, including himself, had addressed the Committee on Finance’s overly narrow scope of review of IOD claims in the past and specifically found that a cursory review of the Injury on Duty Report and a To/From from the injured offi- cer is inadequate when the circumstances surrounding the inju- ry are unclear. Yet, in spite of these past arbitration awards, the Committee on Finance stood by its denial of the officer’s PTSD as an IOD based solely on the initial Injury on Duty Report and a To/ From from the officer. The committee ignored available medical records, including the treating physician reports and evaluations. Moreover, it failed to acknowledge the Department’s Employee Resource E06-03, captioned “Traumatic Incident Stress Manage- ment Program,” which explicitly defines a traumatic injury as a police incident or action that results in a member “experiencing emotional or psychological distress” in which the officer sustains serious emotional trauma in a duty-related activit.
In the award, the arbitrator specifically noted the unique na- ture of police work, “when an employee is assigned to work in a high crime area, that is a reasonable indicator of a ‘situation of greater dimensions than the day-to-day emotional strain and tension which all employees...experience.’” The arbitrator agreed with the FOP that Chicago Police Officers are at a much greater risk than the general public of sustaining psychological and/or emotional injuries, based on the unique nature of their jobs.
We hope this recent arbitration decision will encourage the Committee on Finance to reevaluate how the City reviews the compensability of officers’ injuries sustained on the job and minimize the need to arbitrate and re-arbitrate whether the committee’s IOD decisions are based on a reasonable review of the available information. If not, the Lodge will continue to chal- lenge such decisions through the grievance process. Police Offi- cers who serve and protect this great city deserve nothing less. d
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2018 19