PHILADELPHIA — Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has vowed to investigate and punish Philadelphia police officers who are abusing a generous state disability benefit at a time when hundreds of officers say they are too injured to work.
An Inquirer investigation, "MIA: Crisis in the Ranks," published last week, found that at least 652 officers were labeled "injured on duty" on a 2021 list shared between the Police Department and the District Attorney's Office, a figure that had more than doubled since 2017.
The newspaper found that some officers who were supposedly too hurt to do police work managed to hold down second jobs — some of which were physically strenuous — and launch businesses. A police directive prohibits officers from working any other job while they're out with Heart and Lung claims.
