§3612. Military service credit

Time served as active duty in the service of the armed forces of the United States of America shall constitute "service" in the police department as used in this Subpart, subject to the following conditions:

(1) A member shall be eligible for credit for military service even though he served with the armed forces of the United States before becoming a policeman with the Lafayette Police Department.

(2) In order to qualify as "service" under this Subpart, the time served must arise out of a tour of duty which itself lasted at least sixty consecutive days. Time served on active duty in connection with a tour of duty with the armed forces which lasted less than sixty consecutive days is specifically excluded from use as "service" in computing retirement benefits and credit hereunder.

(3) Parts of a year, months, and days from both the armed forces of the United States and the Lafayette Police Department shall be included to determine the amount of time a member has accrued toward retirement, for the purpose of receiving retirement benefits. No credit shall be allowed for months and days which do not add up to a complete year.

(4) The maximum benefits allowable from military service time to policemen who have served on active duty with the armed forces of the United States shall be three years. Any military service time in excess of three years shall not be used for the purpose of computing benefits to be received from this fund.

(5) A member with twenty years or more of service with the Lafayette Police Department shall not be allowed to use time served with the armed forces of the United States to compute retirement benefits. This shall not, however, apply to members who were employed by the Lafayette Police Department prior to January 1, 1955.

(6) If a member is drafted or called into service duty with the armed forces of the United States, he shall not lose any of his benefits of this plan for a maximum of four years, or indefinitely, if a United States national crisis occurs, to be determined by the board of directors of this fund.

(7) Once hired by the Lafayette Police Department, if a member leaves under voluntary enlistment, then it must be shown to the satisfaction of the board of directors that such voluntary service was undertaken due to the fact that the member was to be involuntarily taken into service through compulsory military training or through a federal selective service act.

(8) The member, upon being discharged from military service shall reapply for employment as a member of the police department within sixty days after the date of his discharge. He shall have received an honorable discharge from the branch of service in which he was a member.

Added by Acts 1975, No. 549, §1. Amended by Acts 1976, No. 646, §1; Redesignated from R.S. 33:2385.11 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991.