A new report says more than 60% of recently retired Montgomery County (web|news) police officers are collecting disability payments and some people wonder if the system is being abused.

The inspector general behind the report says a prudent person would call these retirement practices abusive, but the police chief says that's too simplistic. He argues that public safety jobs can be dangerous and the county needs a system that takes care of people who deserve help.

The Inspector General's report looked at 93 police officers who retired from the Montgomery County Police force since 2004 and found most who left also collected disability payments, 2/3 of their salary, tax-free for life.

"Clearly the system's broken when 62 percent of the officers retiring in the last 3 1/2 years are retiring with disability. That's becoming the norm and that's not credible," said Montgomery County councilman Phil Andrews.

Andrews is concerned enough, he called a hearing to talk about ways to county could fix the system described in the inspector general's report. It says of the 93 officers receiving disability retirements, 9 were in full-duty status at the time the disabilities were approved and 3 were under investigation for wrong-doing.

But Montgomery County's police chief says he hasn't seen any of the officers' medical records, so he doesn't want to jump to conclusions about their validity or have the county do the same. "We don't want to do something with unintended consequences. We need to make it fair for everybody," said Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger.

A separate county executive review found a higher percentage of Montgomery County public safety employees get disability than in Prince George's, Howard, and Fairfax Counties combined. As it stands, Montgomery County has no way to pay partial disability to public safety retirees; it's all or nothing and that could change in future legislation.

One thing that emerged from the meeting is the county has the power to review disability retirements for people who are not yet 55 years old and potentially revoke those payments if needed. There are talks that may happen, though county leaders warn, it may not happen before January.