VIPO Co-Founders Mario Oliveira and Bob Denapoli spoke to a room full of officers at a special event earlier this month at Becker College in Leicester. They discussed their experiences suffering career-ending injuries, and continued to share the work they’ve done to encourage police departments to develop policies that address line of duty injuries and deaths.
News
An organization emerges to educate and advocate or permanently injured police officers
Through my work with the New England State Police Information Network (NESPIN), I have been fortunate to be able to speak to well over 1,000 police officers and chiefs about an issue that’s deeply personal to me and has the potential to impact each of them.
With NESPIN’s support, I’ve been sharing my story on behalf of the Violently Injured Police Officer’s Organization (VIPO) and have seen police unions and chiefs come together in an unprecedented show of unity around a critical issue: Having a plan to take care of officers who are severely injured in the line of duty and are forced to end their careers.
I will live the rest of my life with the burden of the injuries and complications I’ve dealt with since being critically injured while serving an arrest warrant with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) eight years ago.
There is no way to sugar coat the situation. On Nov, 2, 2010, I was shot six times by a gun trafficker who we were trying to arrest. I died on the operating table and have been battling health problems and hospital stints ever since.
Nearly as difficult, however, is the battle I’ve fought each day since and coming to the realization that things might have been easier for my family if I had not survived my ordeal.
Imagine you’re a sergeant who was shot while responding to a robbery. If you die, your spouse is automatically entitled to one-time federal and state payments totaling over $600,000, tax free, plus the entirety of your base pay for the rest of their life and there are several programs that forgive property taxes.
Additionally, your kids will get free tuition to any state college and will be at the front of the line if they decide to follow in your footsteps and become a police officer.
But, if you respond to that same call and leave are left alive but with devastating and career-ending injuries, you’ll merely get 72 percent of your pay for the rest of your life with no benefits to your spouse and children. What’s worse, the process of trying to collect on that 72 percent is difficult, time-consuming, and leaves the officer feeling ashamed as they often face an adversarial city or town government and the burden of proving that their injuries — even gunshots — are job related and require you to leave the job you love.
That should not happen. It’s always upsetting to me when I break that news to cops who had no idea what kind of battle they’d be in for if, god forbid, they ever experience what I have.
I am extraordinarily grateful to NESPIN for allowing me to take this message to so many in law enforcement. Their support has enabled my VIPO partner, Bob DiNapoli, and I to educate officers and build a unified base among unions and chiefs—who don’t always see eye to eye—and make real progress on behalf of law enforcement heroes.
There is a bill before the Massachusetts Legislature that would improve benefits and streamline the process for injured officers. The fight for that bill’s passage has placed labor unions and police chiefs on the same side of the aisle, and I could not be prouder than to watch labor and management come together and put aside differences for the common good.
I must single out Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes and Bedford Police Chief Robert Bongiorno for their commitment to this effort, which was on full display when they testified in front of the Senate Public Service Committee on Beacon Hill and advocated for more support for wounded officers.
Beyond backing me as I travel throughout Eastern Massachusetts educating cops about this hugely important issue, NESPIN has also dedicated resources to make a model line of duty injury policy available to all departments so that officers so officers never feel alone in navigating the fallout from a career-ending injury.
That battle is one I had to fight on my own, but VIPO and NESPIN are working together to ensure that cops don’t have to grapple with these issues after suffering life-altering injuries.
Some Permanently Disabled Police Officers Are Being Left to Bear the Burden of Their Own Survival
Imagine faithfully serving your police department and your community for three decades, just to have everything that you’ve worked for taken away in an instant without any warning whatsoever.
That’s exactly what happened to a Norwalk, Conecticut Police Officer last year when the officer was accidentally shot following a day long training on the firing range. The resulting complications — a bullet permanently lodged inside his body, a partial blockage of a heart valve and lifelong nerve damage — forced him to retire at age 51 – well before he otherwise would have.
Despite the obvious lasting impact that this errant bullet has had on his life – as well as the lives of his wife and five children – the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Commission has twice taken the hardline stance that the accident wasn’t impactful enough to grant him the benefits he had rightfully earned after 30 years of service as a committed and dedicated police officer. The Commission, in their infinite wisdom, saw fit to cite his Type 1 diabetes, and not the damaging bullet that he took at the hands of a fellow officer at the training session, as the source of his problems and ultimate disability. Interestingly enough this underlying illness had never been an issue before, yet it is the basis on which his police department and the City of Norwalk are using to avoid helping one of their own and paying him the benefits that he is entitled to. Sadly, the Norwalk Officer’s situation is not an anomaly and cases like this where benefits are denied to permanently disabled officers seem to be occurring more often than not.
Nearly three years ago, a Philadelphia Police Officer was on patrol in his cruiser when a gunman ambushed him and fired three shots directly into his left arm. Despite his serious injuries, the officer bravely returned fire and struck the suspect prior to his being captured by a fellow officer. Eleven surgeries later, he’s been left with only the limited use of his left arm.
Still, the Philadelphia Police Department expects him at work every day after determining that his injuries aren’t deemed permanent in nature. Really? He could retire, but doing so would cost him 30 percent of his salary, which he needs to provide for his family and pay his ever increasing medical bills directly resulting from the violent attack against him.
Both of these officers have received a raw deal. They, and far too many others just like them, deserve to be treated better – much better. That’s why the Violently Injured Police Officers Organization (VIPO) is working tirelessly to make a lasting change in this critical area. Officers who risk their lives each and every day — whether participating on a dangerous raid, performing a motor vehicle stop, participating in a training exercise or by simply putting on their uniform — should be able to do so knowing their department has their back if they ever get injured protecting those that they were sworn to serve.
We know that our families are entitled to a host of deserving statutory benefits – both state and federal – when officers are killed in the line of duty, but those laws do not go far enough. It is time for Legislators, Governors, Managers/Mayors and police departments through their chiefs to step up and do the right thing to ensure that wounded officers left permanently disabled aren’t left abandoned, feeling mistreated, and bearing the financial burden on their own without the support that they deserve.
Det. Mario Oliveira (Ret)
Co-Founder
Violently Injured Police Officers
VIPO Presentation Earns High Marks From FBINAA Conference Attendees
VIPO’s Mario Oliveira and Robert DiNapoli earned strong reviews from attendees at the FBI National Academy Associates Conference following their presentation to that group in August.
Oliveira and DiNapoli’s presentation on the importance of line-of-duty injury policies was rated as excellent and/or good by 93 percent of attendees, making it among the best rated presentations at the multi-day conference in Quebec.
PHOTOS: V.I.P.O. Co-founders Present at the FBI National Academy Associates 54th Annual Training Conference
V.I.P.O. co-founders Mario Oliveira and Bob DeNapoli presented a keynote session at the FBI National Academy Associates 54th Annual Training Conference on Tuesday, July 24 in Quebec City, Canada.