DC Council Member Proposing Move to Retain Experienced Officers

To combat violence in the city, Washington D.C. Council member Vincent Gray is proposing an incentive to keep experienced officers from retiring. This week, the council will consider emergency legislation to fund it, reports WTOP .

It's a strategy to mitigate an ongoing problem in D.C., police officers retiring in their 40s and 50s and going elsewhere.

"We have an attractive pension program and at the end of 25 years, they're eligible for a nice retirement pension," said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.

Gray is introducing legislation Tuesday to reward experienced officers with a bonus and one year's salary if they sign on for another five years past their retirement eligibility.

"We're not talking about people who are way past the point where they'd be a part of a patrol effort. These are people who are really at the prime of their career, who are choosing to go on to other jobs or on to another police force just to do something different," Gray said.

Long referred to as the D.C. police retirement bubble, Mendelson said D.C. cannot recruit and train officers as fast as they are losing them, due to a majority of the now high-ranking officers hired in the 1980s.