In Harm's Way

Workers' compensation pay covers 70 percent of income and is untaxed, but it is capped at $526 a week. Under the policy, Flusche, who is 42 and has 20 years of service, will take a big hit to his pay if he takes more than 13 weeks to heal. He says the cap would put him at less than half his pay. "Am I worried?...Yeah," he says, explaining he has one kid at Texas Christian University and another expecting to start college in a year and half.

Flusche says two council members have told him that he'll "be taken care of" and not hurt financially for his on-the-job bravery. Various council members have said publicly the new policy will be flexible and that exceptions will be made.

White, the police association head, says that approach is almost certain to be unfair.

"You'll have to have a 'glamour injury,'" he says. Officers and civilian employees hurt in car wrecks, or who are injured in the course of routine, unpublicized police work, are not likely to receive special dispensation from city officials, he says.

White says he wrote numerous letters to the council explaining the hardships the new policy would cause, but they passed it anyway.

He says most of the six Dallas officers shot in the line of duty this fall received injuries requiring medical treatment and rehab lasting more than 13 weeks. More than half of his organization's 2,400 members are paying for additional workers' comp coverage costing $17 a month and up.

"It's just another thing that zaps morale. There's just nothing positive coming out of City Hall for us," White says.

Still, he says, he doubts it is changing the way most officers think about their jobs. "They just go out and take whatever action they have to. If they get hurt, they deal with that later."

Michael Walton, president of the Dallas Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 588, a smaller police organization, is asking his membership to think otherwise.

Walton wrote on the front of his December newsletter that he commended the officers who "placed themselves in harm's way in order to save those children's lives in Oak Cliff...Now here are 13 reasons why you shouldn't go beyond the call of duty."

His list, which focused on complaints about Mayor Laura Miller and the council, included a number of items on health insurance and the new workers' comp salary continuation policy.

Walton, who declined to return calls to the Dallas Observer, told his membership that the only reason they should endanger themselves is to help another Dallas officer. "Let's keep each other safe," he wrote. "And not worry about the rest."