Sunday, June 07, 2009
Opinion, Politics, Atlanta

"This is all so unnecessary"

Why won’t Mayor Franklin talk to the disabled cops?

By Tina Trent

People in the mayor’s office are doubtlessly breathing a sigh of relief this week. They believe they have gotten past the worst of it, that the news cycle has run its course on the disabled cops benefits scandal. Sgt. Scott Kreher still hasn’t gotten his job back as of this writing, and the injured policemen still haven’t gotten their medical benefits, but such uncomfortable topics will fade from public view, it is hoped, as summer vacations and fresh headlines distract the public.

Mayor Franklin is counting on distraction because, for the second time recently, she got caught defending an indefensible position. "I refuse to acknowledge or repair the unjust treatment of disabled police officers by my administration" joins her previous assertion, "Crime is not a problem in Atlanta," on the list of tone-deaf statements by a politician who can’t possibly be this out of touch, or this cold-hearted.

Retired police officer Ryan Phinney was gravely wounded in 1989 while he was chasing a suspect. He has spent the last 20 years in a wheelchair, and the last two years trying to get the city to continue to honor its obligation to pay for his medical care.

When Mayor Franklin brought in NovaPro Risk Solutions to run Atlanta’s workers’ compensation program, Phinney’s life became a daily grind of fighting for access to the procedures and treatments that keep him alive. He is paralyzed from the chest down, and knows that even slight delays in medical care can push a body like his over the edge. That is what happened to Christopher Reeve, he explains: A delay in treating a pressure sore led to an infection. Then a delay in treating the infection allowed it to spread to his bloodstream. Then it killed him.

By forcing the injured officers to file legal appeals in order to get permission for surgeries, wheelchair repairs, oxygen and medications, the City of Atlanta is literally pushing them closer to death. It is impossible not to wonder if, somehow, rattling around in the dry husk of the city’s bureaucratic soul, that has been the point all along.

“Realistically speaking," says Phinney, “the money the City of Atlanta will spend [on us] in the future is significant. We will not improve. The longer we spend paralyzed, the higher the medical costs will be. You can’t repair me. My nervous system has been impaired. The nervous system has impaired my muscular system. My muscular system has impaired my circulatory system, and, most notably, my immune system is impaired. Because everything is interdependent, if one part of the body goes, the entire body gets worse.” 

Phinney has the type of intelligence that makes connections. He is fighting for his life and the lives of the other disabled cops, he says, but he is also fighting for the health of the police force, and the health of the city itself.

Years of being underpaid and disrespected in large and small ways have worn down the officers of the APD. The city cannot survive without police officers, says Phinney, but you cannot get police officers to put their lives on the line knowing that NovaPro is what is waiting for them on the other side of a catastrophic injury.

The city’s treatment of the injured officers might not make it onto the front page of the newspaper every day, or even every week, but it is always in the minds of the police, adding to all the other reasons not to be a police officer in the city of Atlanta.

“One day there will be a roll call, and there won’t be anybody there. People will call for help, and nobody will be there,” Phinney warns. It is not an outlandish scenario: Officers are already bailing out and going to work in places with higher pay, places where elected officials thank them for putting their lives on the line, instead of disrespecting and ignoring them.

Mayor Franklin has found the time to file complaints with federal and county prosecutors over a verbal insult, but she has still not found the time to fix the medical benefits mess. “The only reason they can keep officers working in Atlanta is the amazing level of devotion the police have for the city,” Phinney says. 

Yet he manages to sound perplexed, not bitter, when he considers the absurdity of the current standoff. “Our goal never was to embarrass Shirley Franklin or anyone working for the City of Atlanta,” he says. “This is all so unnecessary. For some strange reason, there doesn’t seem to be anybody interested in treating this like a leadership issue, an opportunity to solve the problem. I would work with anyone.”

Phinney, metaphorically, is still offering his hand. For the health of the city, Mayor Franklin, why don’t you reach out and take it? SP    

  Tina Trent is a former Atlanta resident who writes about crime and crime policies at  crimevictimsmediareport.com. She is filling in for the vacationing Stephanie Ramage.