David Blanchard is the president and founder of the Badge of Honor Memorial Foundation. The Foundation, established in 2004, serves as the national advocacy group for the families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, providing oversight and guidance in obtaining the federal and state statutory death benefits to which the survivors are entitled. The volunteer organization is a national tax-exempt organization run by a board of 32 trustees, all of whom are police officers and serve on their respective pension boards nationwide, and a state benefits advisory board of 38 individuals, all of whom currently serve as the executive directors or plan administrators for their state pension plans.
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Friday, June 27, 2014
Administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the federal death benefit for first responders is the same for all survivors — currently $333,604.68, adjusted Oct. 31 each year — but state death benefits vary widely. In some states, these benefits are complicated and require direct interaction with state officials, who are often hard to identify and sometimes even harder to reach by phone.
