Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4036 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MARCH 2017 You want to protect cops? Start with this N ew York’s attor- ney general and the Consumer Financial Pro- tection Bureau claims that New Jersey-based RD Legal Funding and its founder Roni Dersovitz hoodwinked 9/11 responders who are sick and dying from cancer and respiratory illness. The scam was simple. RD Legal Funding told the sick cops they could get advances on their settlements. Authorities said the com- pany got ahold of the re- sponders and also many former NFL players with traumatic brain injury when it found out about their settlements. The company would tell the marks/victims that the firm could get them advanc- es on their legal settlements if they were willing to part with a big chunk of change. RD Legal Funding alleg- edly advertised that it could “cut through red tape” to get victims their money more quickly. In the real world they had no legal authority or ability to do that. “The alleged actions by RD Legal — scamming 9/11 heroes and former NFL players struggling with se- vere injuries — are simply shameful,” New York Attor- ney General Eric Schneider- man said in a statement. But this kind of scam is now a growth industry. There are scores of com- panies that promise im- mediate cash payments for people who are awarded legal settlements. For someone with mount- ing legal and medical bills, it’s an offer too good to refuse. Of course then the marks/ victims get hit with interest rates as high as 250 percent and their money goes bye- bye. According to a report by the Associated Press: “Au- thorities said in one case, a 9/11 responder was awarded $65,000 from the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensa- tion Act. RD Legal advanced her roughly $18,000 on her settlement, but she ended up repaying $33,800 to RD Legal six months later due to fees and interest.” These days if you want to be protected it’s probably wise to get into the financial industry rather than law enforcement. And it’s nice to have friends in high places, like the President, who said a lot of his friends (like JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon) have had a hard time getting loans due to these “frivolous lawsuits.” So we can expect that fi- nancial firms and companies that target people including law enforcement officers and others for fraud and theft will have protections that the rest of us can only dream of. If you don’t think fraud and financial crime can impact the lives of cops, you’re dead wrong There’s been a lot of talk about Chicago’s gun homi- cides and the increase in the murder rate. But what you don’t hear a lot about is one of the most disturbing statistics you’ll ever hear. The suicide rate for Chicago police officers is 60 percent higher than the suicide rate for cops nationwide. An average of three Chi- cago officers will take their own lives each year and that is based on life insurance claims information from the Chicago F.O.P. Lodge #7. In the last 10 years 13 Chicago officers have been killed in the line of duty. There are twice as many officer suicides during that period. Ron Rufo was a peer support counselor for most of his 21 years as a patrol officer in the 9th District. He bravely volunteered to talk to fellow officers at any scene where an officer was killed or injured. Rufo retired last year. He says any official sta- tistics on police officers and suicides are probably inac- curate. There are more than any one wants to discuss. “There is a problem, and nobody’s doing anything about it,” Rufo said. “Su- pervisors don’t talk about it. The rank-and-file don’t talk about it. And it’s like the ad- ministration does not want to admit it’s a problem.” Alexa James, a psycholo- gist who served on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Police Ac- countability Task Force says Chicago’s cops face specific challenges. “When you have 760 ho- micides in the city in a year, that’s a war zone — and that’s where police are working every day,” James told re- porters with the Chicago Sun Times. “It is a hard, hard job, and police officers get very little support,” she said. If you want to talk about “officer safety,” here’s a good place to start. The Chicago Police De- partment’s Employee As- sistance Program, the group that provides mental health services to 13,500 police of- ficers and staff, has just three full-time counselors. That’s no where near enough re- soures to help struggling officers. “You can go there when- ever you want and make ap- pointments,” said a veteran Chicago officer. “I believe there’s only two therapists there, so what’s their avail- ability?” Another veteran asked, “Do people do it? I don’t know. If they do, they don’t talk about it. I’ve never, in 14 years on the job, ever heard more than one or two guys talk about going to EAP.” In addition, there are still those damn elephants in the room. The first elephant is the fact that cop culture has yet to evolve to the point where officers can admit they need help without worrying about what people will think. The other is that a lot of police in Chicago think that if they talk to a therapist they’ll lose their guns, and then their jobs. A permit to carry a gun is a job requirement for police officers, and while it’s not true, lots of cops think that they could lose their FOID card just for seeing a thera- pist. “This is a real problem,” Alexa James said. “Police officers are the only class of citizen in the U.S. who is go- ing to lose their job for seek- ing mental health care.” The COPS Office is out of business. But hopefully the IACP, NSA and other groups will continue to do important work on the issue of police officer suicides. Officer suicides in Chicago up