For federal agents, ignorance is expensive.  Know your exposures and the protections available to you. 

In our litigious society, professional liability insurance often becomes necessary when there is an event that results in safety concerns, public alarm, injury, death, oversight or a security vulnerability or breach. In 2011, we published an article in this column about the Personal Threats by Sovereign Citizens affecting judges, law enforcement officers (LEOs), and other court officials. As the frontline of defense in federal court facilities, the daily interactions of Court Security Officers (CSOs) with sovereign citizens/anti-government extremists, gang members and other violent offenders have resulted in the need for FEDS Protection to extend the very same coverage available for Federal LEOs to Federal CSOs.

It was a sad ending to National Suicide Prevention Week 2019 for the law enforcement community. Six officers died by suicide in seven days – that’s the verified number by Blue H.E.L.P. – and it could be more once the verifications are completed.

As summer time-off requests come to an end, it’s time to start thinking about your religious observances and any time off you may need in the coming months. Previous Office of Personnel Management regulations concerning religious compensatory time rules and procedures were thought by many HR professionals to be vague, resulting in inconsistencies amongst agencies. This past spring, OPM issued its long awaited final regulations to clarify provisions concerning religious compensatory time, allowing employees to accrue and use compensatory time for religious purposes. According to OPM, this benefit “support[s] the President’s Management Agenda by clarifying the rules…that in turn help agencies to become careful stewards of taxpayer dollars.”