Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — Robert Wayne Peregoy, 47, died after suffering a heart attack while driving to work on I-795 in Owings Mills. Michael Patrick Howe died in a hospital room after suffering a stroke in his Carroll County home.
Both men were police officers, and the departments for each ruled that their deaths occurred in the line of duty - Peregoy was heading to court; Howe collapsed after commanding officers to storm a house after a man had killed his wife and then himself. Both men received funerals with police honors and pageantry. But while a police agency may classify a death as in the line of duty, the pension system and other organizations set up to honor fallen heroes don’t always agree, adding layers of unforeseen bureaucracy and heartache to families fighting for benefits and recognition long after the deaths fade from the headlines.
Howe’s wife and child receive his full yearly salary from Baltimore County and got stipends from the state and federal government. Howe’s name is listed on the county’s Officer Down memorial page and is engraved in Washington on the National Law Enforcement Memorial. Peregoy’s wife of 27 years is battling Baltimore City’s Fire and Police Employees Retirement System to get more than her allowance of a quarter of her husband’s salary and funds from a workman’s compensation claim filed with the state. His name is not on the union’s board of officers who lost their lives while on the job.
Honoring police officers who were killed while on duty would seem a simple task. And indeed, in most cases, such as when an officer is shot while making an arrest, it is straightforward. But other times the process is fraught with complications. Deciding whether an officer was “on duty,” injured in a confrontation, died as a result of pre-existing medical condition or even whether the deceased fits the differing definitions of law enforcement officer, can be a tricky task.
Read full story: The fine line of dying ‘in the line of duty’