Sandie Doptis is Education Committee Chairwoman for The Badge of Honor Memorial Foundation. She is retired from Washington, D.C. Police Department’s Financial and Cyber Crimes Unit, where she had a specialty in crimes against the elderly and estate/real estate fraud. She is a frequent lecturer for federal, state and local public safety agencies on casualty and estate planning.
John T. "Jack" Gaffigan is the Executive Director of The Badge of Honor Memorial Foundation. Jack retired as a sergeant from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department after a 36-year career. He last served as a precinct supervisor for the second district. He is also a regional secretary for the International Police Association — US.
-
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
When there is an officer down incident, kind-hearted nonprofit and departmental associations always attempt to provide financial assistance to the survivors of a line-of-duty death through fundraisers utilizing banks, radio shows and telemarketing. The funds dispersed to the surviving widows and children pale in light of the fact that the majority of the states provide special public safety death benefits and full four-year college scholarships within their respective university systems to all survivors. This article focuses solely on state death benefits, and in particular the one-time, lump-sum death benefit — if the state has one — payable to the survivors of an officer killed in the line of duty.
