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Focus on New Laws: Public Safety Officer Benefit Expanded and Clarified for Line-of-Duty Deaths
The measures provide new definitions of duties that qualify for survivor death benefits, expand state benefits to firefighters and peace officers who died from cancer or a contagious disease due to duty-related exposure, and apply retroactively to 2020.
The omnibus public safety policy bill enacted in 2026 contains provisions that modify line-of-duty death definitions and benefits in Minnesota Statutes, section 299A.41. The changes found in Article 12 of Chapter 97 were strongly supported by the fire service and provide benefits to more survivors of police officers and firefighters, both full-time and paid on-call, who die from job-related exposure or physical stress. The provisions have different retroactive effective dates in 2020.
Definitions added
The measure adds three new definitions related to job-induced stress. The definitions are effective retroactively to Feb. 1, 2020.
If a police officer or firefighter dies as the direct result of a heart attack, stroke, or vascular rupture sustained within 24 hours of the activities defined below, the officer is presumed to have died from a personal injury sustained in the line of duty. As a result, survivors are entitled to public safety officer benefits.
The new definitions of job-induced stress are as follows:
- “Nonroutine strenuous physical activity” is a line-of-duty activity that is not clerical, administrative, or nonmanual in nature; is not performed as a matter of routine; and involves an unusually high level of physical exertion.
- “Nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical activity” means nonroutine stressful physical activity or nonroutine strenuous physical activity.
- “Nonroutine stressful physical activity” is a line-of-duty activity that is not clerical, administrative, or nonmanual in nature; is not performed as a matter of routine; and involves nonnegligible physical exertion. It must occur in a situation where a public safety officer is engaged under circumstances that objectively and reasonably pose, or appear to pose, significant dangers, threats, hazards, or reasonably foreseeable risks not faced by similarly situated members of the public in the ordinary course. The activity must also provoke, cause, or result in an unusually high level of alarm, fear, or anxiety. This definition also includes a training exercise that objectively and reasonably simulates situations involving significant dangers, threats, or hazards, and that provokes, causes, or results in an unusually high level of alarm, fear, or anxiety.
Cancer deaths from on-duty carcinogen exposure
The new law also expands line-of-duty death benefits to survivors of firefighters and police officers who are exposed to certain carcinogens and later die from exposure-related cancer. This provision is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2020.
The cancer benefit applies to officers who served at least five years and were diagnosed with an exposure-related cancer no more than 15 years after their last date of active service as a public safety officer.
A carcinogen is an agent that is:
- Classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer under Group 1 or Group 2A.
- Reasonably linked to exposure-related cancer.
Exposure-related cancers listed in the law include:
- Bladder cancer
- Brain cancer
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Colon cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Leukemia
- Lung cancer
- Malignant melanoma
- Mesothelioma
- Multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Ovarian cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Skin cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Thyroid cancer
Deaths related to on-duty infectious disease exposure
Under the new law, a public safety officer is considered killed in the line of duty if the officer dies from complications caused by line-of-duty exposure to any of the following infectious diseases, viruses, or bacteria, and medical records identify the disease, virus, or bacteria as a cause of or contributing factor to the death:
- COVID-19
- Influenza
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Tuberculosis
- HIV/AIDS
- Meningitis
- MRSA
- Whooping cough
- Streptococcus pneumoniae
This provision is effective retroactively to Feb. 1, 2020.
Benefits currently paid by state
The benefits provided to survivors are currently funded by the state. The League did not oppose the expanded benefits for survivors of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty. However, it repeatedly stated on the record that the benefits should continue to be funded by the state.
In response to the League’s concerns that the benefits could become an unfunded local mandate, the following language was added to the bill and is now included in law: “If there are insufficient funds appropriated for this purpose, the commissioner [of the Department of Public Safety] shall determine the award amounts for each eligible applicant from available resources.”
Impact unknown
It is unknown how many survivors may qualify for retroactive benefits. In addition, because line-of-duty public safety deaths are inherently unpredictable, the impact of this law is difficult to estimate.
The League will monitor implementation of the new law. If your city has experience with the new law, please share information that may help quantify its impact with the League’s intergovernmental relations staff.