9-11 Clean-up Cops Might Get Benefits
New York, NY —
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he supports a state law-change to compensate police officers' families if their loved ones die from health complications after working at the World Trade Center site.
REPORTER: The statement comes a week after an Ocean County, New Jersey, coroner said 34-year-old NYPD detective died from respiratory problems contracted during the September 11th cleanup. A proposal in Albany would recognize the death and others like it as having occurred "in the line of duty" - qualifying dependants for extended benefits.
Kelly said he favors the change in pension law - but only if the cause of death can be directly linked to work at the World Trade Center site.
KELLY: If it changed, I would support it. If you could show causality - being the fact that the individual was at Ground Zero, I would support it. Certainly.
REPORTER: Mayor Bloomberg has not said whether he supports the bill.
The coroner who did the autopsy on Detective James Zadroga wrote, "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident." Other experts say the proof is not so definitive and would need additional testing.
