WE’LL NEVER FORGET!
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on Monday demanded the NYPD simplify the requirements for police officers with 9/11-related illnesses to prove they were at Ground Zero so they could receive disability pensions.
Cops currently have to go through a rigorous process to show they were present in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack. They have to pass a medical board screening and then provide two forms of documentation that usually includes official roll calls.
But Adams (photo), a retired NYPD captain, said many sick cops were being penalized by having to slog through a process he called “bureaucratic red tape” — especially when some records have been lost since 2001.
“In my years in the police department...the last thing that was in our mind was the paper that’s associated with documenting where you were deployed,” said Adams, who on Sunday told the Daily News that officers with 9/11 illnesses shouldn’t have to “fight against the department.”
“What we’re finding, that is very important, is that the police department gave to the Law Department a large body of records, roll calls and other records that indicate where the officers were,” he added. “Mysteriously, some of those records are missing.”
Adams said he’s asked Councilmen Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) and Donovan Richards (D-Queens) to conduct an investigation to find the missing 9/11 records.
“And if those records can’t be found, someone must be held accountable,” he said. “But you cannot deny documented 9/11-related incidents for the officers because of sloppy record keeping and retention of the police department.”
Retired NYPD Lt. Maureen Donohue’s said she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in September 2014 stemming from her time at Ground Zero.
“They didn’t have the evidence that I had been there enough despite roll calls and detailed rosters,” Donohue said.
Donohue said she was able to prove she was present after she found her memo books, and had to get affidavits from colleagues who were with her.
“As the years go by and memories fade, it becomes more difficult to remember who you were standing next to 17 years ago, especially in such chaos,” Donohue said.
“It’s a shame that some people have bonafide illnesses from Sept. 11 and we need to get an affidavit, plus they don’t have any records,” she added.
An NYPD spokesman previously told the Daily News that the department “seeks nothing but fairness for its members and pension fund decisions are subject to judicial review if a member is dissatisfied with the result.”