Quinn Bill Eligibility of Rehired or Transferred Police Officers

Once a police officer qualifies for Quinn Bill benefits, the benefits cannot be terminated if the officer is rehired or transferred after the Quinn Bill cut-off date of July 1, 2009.

Under the recent Quinn Bill amendments police officers hired after July 1, 2009 are no longer eligible to participate in the Quinn Bill benefits.  Municipal employers have contended that officers eligible for the Quinn Bill who are rehired or transferred after that date lose their Quinn Bill eligibility.  This issue has arisen in the following ways for officers hired before July 1, 2009 who qualified for Quinn Bill: 1) The officer resigns from the police service, but is then rehired by the same municipality after July 1, 2009; 2) The officer transfers to another department after July 1, 2009; 3) The officer is laid off and is recalled into another department after July 1, 2009.

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, which administers the Quinn Bill, has now definitively answered that all of these rehired and transferred police officers remain eligible for Quinn Bill Benefits.   In a recent communication with our office the Department has stated that it is their policy “that an approved PCIPP (Police Career Incentive Payment Policy) eligibility status is never revoked.  Thus, if an approved PCIPP officer leaves employment and returns at a later date, or transfers from one department to another, the officer retains his or her PCIPP eligibility.”