S 2168Cities & Towns

Towns and Cities - Retirement of Municipal Employees

Exempts retired police officers working as School Resource Officers from the 75-day pension work limit regarding private, non-governmentally paid details.

Held for study

Population
Affected

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Introduced Jan 16, 2026Committee Senate Labor & Gaming

Plain-English Summary

This legislation amends the Rhode Island General Laws regarding the retirement of municipal employees. Currently, retired members of the municipal retirement system can return to work for up to 75 days per year without suspending their pension benefits. This bill creates a specific exception for retired police officers or peace officers who are working as School Resource Officers (SROs). Under this bill, the 75-day limit will not apply to these officers when they are working private details that are paid for by a nongovernmental entity, allowing them to perform this specific work without impacting their pension eligibility.

For younger readers

When police officers retire, they receive a special payment called a pension. Usually, if they go back to work for the town, they can only work 75 days a year if they want to keep getting that pension money. This new rule makes an exception for retired police officers who work in schools to keep students safe. It says that if these officers work extra security jobs paid for by private groups (like a private company) instead of the government, those days do not count toward the 75-day limit. This lets them work more without losing their pension.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups

Retired Police OfficersSchool Resource OfficersMunicipal Retirement SystemPrivate Security ClientsRhode Island Schools

Impacted communities

All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost

None

Estimated revenue

None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints

For Progressives

Ensures that the specific work hours covered by this exemption are paid for by nongovernmental entities, protecting the public treasury and taxpayers from bearing additional costs for these services.
Supports the rights of workers to seek employment and earn a living without arbitrary government caps on their working days, provided the funding is private.
May help maintain consistent staffing levels in schools by encouraging experienced personnel to remain as School Resource Officers without fear of financial penalty.
Reinforces and incentivizes the presence of police in schools (School Resource Officers), which many advocates argue contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionately harms minority students.
Creates a special carve-out for police officers that is not available to other public servants like teachers or social workers, reinforcing a hierarchy of privilege for law enforcement within the public sector.
Facilitates "double-dipping," allowing individuals to collect a public pension while maintaining active employment, rather than opening those positions to new, younger workers who need employment.

For Conservatives

Encourages the use of private sector funding for security details ("paid for by a nongovernmental entity"), reducing the financial burden on the state and local municipalities.
Strengthens school safety by removing bureaucratic red tape that prevents experienced, retired officers from serving as School Resource Officers.
Removes government restrictions on the free market, allowing retired individuals to work as much as they choose when paid by private entities.
Perpetuates a system of "double-dipping" where public employees collect taxpayer-funded pensions while effectively continuing to work, which can be seen as an abuse of the retirement system.
Violates the principle of equal treatment under the law by granting special exemptions to a specific class of government employees (police) that are not granted to others.
May distort the private security market by giving retired public employees with guaranteed pensions a competitive advantage over private security firms and workers.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 4 additions

SECTION 1. Section 45-21-54 of the General Laws in Chapter 45-21 entitled "Retirement of Municipal Employees" is hereby amended to read as follows: 45-21-54. Reemployment of retired members. Any retired member of the system is permitted to reenter the service of the system for not more than seventy-five (75) working days in a calendar year without interruption of pension benefits. Pension payments, however, are suspended when that period is exceeded. This seventy- five-day (75) rule shall not apply to police officers, as defined in § 28-9.2-3, or any peace officer as defined in § 12-7-21, working in a Rhode Island school as a full or part-time school resource officer, for the purposes of their working private details, paid for by a nongovernmental entity. If the retired member continues in service beyond the seventy-five-day (75) period (with his or her annuity temporarily suspended) the member is not eligible for pension credit for the additional service, nor is the member required to make pension contributions for this service; provided, that any retired member of the system is permitted to serve as an elected city or town council member or school committee member and continues to be eligible for and receive the retirement allowance for service other than that as a council member or school committee member.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.