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State Senator Jake Oliveira (Ludlow-D) stood alongside law enforcement officers and union leaders at the State House last week to renew the fight to update Massachusetts’ 75-year-old Heart Law and extend protections to hundreds of police officers currently excluded under state law.
Originally enacted in 1950, the Heart Law provides disability retirement protections for police officers disabled by cardiac disease. However, it does not cover officers serving in agencies that did not exist in their current form at the time the law was passed.
Senator Oliveira, joined by State Representative Colleen Garry, is sponsoring S.1895/H.2842, An Act providing equity and fairness to POST-certified police officers disabled by cardiac disease, which would extend Heart Law coverage to approximately 400 officers, including members of the University of Massachusetts Police, Department of Mental Health Police, State Environmental Police, Massport Police, and State and Community College Police.
“When the Heart Law was passed in 1950, several of today’s agencies simply did not exist,” said Senator Oliveira during Thursday’s press conference. “Even though we are only talking about 400 individuals, those are individuals who have families. Those are stories. People who are left out of the law that should be there to protect them and their health.”
Under the proposed legislation, all POST-certified police officers who suffer a cardiac event on the job would be eligible to go through the established review process to seek disability retirement benefits.
Research underscores the urgency of the issue. Police officers live an average of 15 years less than the general population, and their average age of a cardiac event is 49, largely due to the extreme and chronic stress associated with law enforcement.
“The numbers chill the heart,” said Lt. James Sullivan of the UMass Amherst Police Department. “Officers are 25 times more likely to die of heart disease than of the violent actions of a suspect.”
Support for the legislation spans both chambers and regions of the Commonwealth. A previous version of the bill advanced to the Senate Ways and Means Committee last session before stalling. Advocates note that the proposal would carry no immediate cost to the state.
Senator Oliveira pledged to continue working with colleagues across the aisle to move the bill forward this session.
“Our police officers show up for our communities every day,” Oliveira said. “It is time for the law to show up for them.”
