On the agenda for today’s meeting of City Council is a proposed ordinance to amend existing language in the City Code that stipulates mandatory retirement age for police and fire personnel. The existing language dates to a 1980 ordinance and states that each fireman and policeman has to retire when they reach age 65.
The new ordinance would alter the references to “fireman” and “policeman” and replace it with “firefighter” and “police officer” and would raise the mandatory retirement age for police to 70 (firefighter would remain at 65). The Police Chief (replacing the title “Superintendent of Police”) and Fire Chief are exempt from the requirements currently and would continue to be under the proposal. There would be no impact on normal retirement age for fire or police pensions (later of age 50 or 20 years of service).
So is the proposed retirement age too high? And how many police officers have actually worked until age 65 or would stay on the force until age 70 if the ordinance passes? Pennsylvania State Troopers have a mandatory retirement age of 60. A 2016 article about the police department in Fort Wayne (IN) indicates that the city raised its mandatory retirement age to 70.
