Case Overview, Public Safety Officers

 

           There are certain policies where the government departs from its normal adherence to equality and openly favors a certain class of people. In hiring, for example, veterans are given an advantage for many job openings. The underlying rationale is that men and women who are willing to risk their lives for our country, willing to make sacrifices in the way they live and where they live, and take time away from the pursuit of a civilian career, deserve help after they leave the armed services. Thus, a veteran who applies for a job as a fireman may be given a couple of bonus points on the aptitude test for all applicants.

           A variant of this is the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Officer Next Door Program. As described by a congressional aide, the program "allows law enforcement officers to live in the communities and take root in the communities where they serve." The program provides financial incentives for home ownership, recognizing that buying a home can be difficult for police officers because their incomes are modest. The financial benefit can be substantial. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers some homes at a 50 percent discount in neighborhoods they are trying to revitalize. (Applicants are chosen by lottery as there are usually not enough HUD-owned homes to allocate to those eligible and interested.)

           In 2002 work on the Housing Affordability for America Act was initiated in the House of Representatives. Like a number of other housing bills modeled after the Officer Next Door Program, this one included a provision for assisting public safety officers in the purchase of a house or condominium. Each of these bills included a definition of a public safety officer as this benefit should only be offered to those who have a job with real risk and are going to add to the safety of a neighborhood by living in it. School crossing guards contribute to public safety but most would not believe that a housing subsidy provided by taxpayer funds should be extended to them.

           Inexplicably, the Housing Affordability for America Act didn't include federal safety officers in its eligibility definition. Federal public safety officers would include, for example, FBI agents and the Secret Service. A lobbyist for a police officers association said "nobody could give me an answer as to why they were excluded." Representatives of federal public safety officers began lobbying members of the subcommittee responsible for the bill, asking them to amend the Act so that it would include federal public safety officials. Since there was no opposition, this was an easy sell. As the lobbyist noted, "there is no difference between the service provided to the community by a federal officer or a state or local officer." The subcommittee formally adopted the broadened definition when it began its markup. The larger bill was not signed into law during the 107th Congress.