Public Act 093-1073
 
SB1641 Enrolled LRB093 03192 RCE 03209 b

    AN ACT concerning the military.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Line of Duty Compensation Act is amended by
changing Sections 2 and 3 as follows:
 
    (820 ILCS 315/2)   (from Ch. 48, par. 282)
    Sec. 2. As used in this Act, unless the context otherwise
requires:
    (a) "Law enforcement officer" or "officer" means any person
employed by the State or a local governmental entity as a
policeman, peace officer, auxiliary policeman or in some like
position involving the enforcement of the law and protection of
the public interest at the risk of that person's life. This
includes supervisors, wardens, superintendents and their
assistants, guards and keepers, correctional officers, youth
supervisors, parole agents, school teachers and correctional
counsellors in all facilities of both the Juvenile and Adult
Divisions of the Department of Corrections, while within the
facilities under the control of the Department of Corrections
or in the act of transporting inmates or wards from one
location to another or while performing their official duties,
and all other Department of Correction employees who have daily
contact with inmates.
    The death of the foregoing employees of the Department of
Corrections in order to be included herein must be by the
direct or indirect willful act of an inmate, ward,
work-releasee, parolee, parole violator, person under
conditional release, or any person sentenced or committed, or
otherwise subject to confinement in or to the Department of
Corrections.
    (b) "Fireman" means any person employed by the State or a
local governmental entity as, or otherwise serving as, a member
or officer of a fire department either for the purpose of the
prevention or control of fire or the underwater recovery of
drowning victims, including volunteer firemen.
    (c) "Local governmental entity" includes counties,
municipalities and municipal corporations.
    (d) "State" means the State of Illinois and its
departments, divisions, boards, bureaus, commissions,
authorities and colleges and universities.
    (e) "Killed in the line of duty" means losing one's life as
a result of injury received in the active performance of duties
as a law enforcement officer, civil defense worker, civil air
patrol member, paramedic, fireman, or chaplain if the death
occurs within one year from the date the injury was received
and if that injury arose from violence or other accidental
cause. In the case of a State employee, "killed in the line of
duty" means losing one's life as a result of injury received in
the active performance of one's duties as a State employee, if
the death occurs within one year from the date the injury was
received and if that injury arose from a willful act of
violence by another State employee committed during such other
employee's course of employment and after January 1, 1988. The
term excludes death resulting from the willful misconduct or
intoxication of the officer, civil defense worker, civil air
patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, or State
employee. However, the burden of proof of such willful
misconduct or intoxication of the officer, civil defense
worker, civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain,
or State employee is on the Attorney General. Subject to the
conditions set forth in subsection (a) with respect to
inclusion under this Act of Department of Corrections employees
described in that subsection, for the purposes of this Act,
instances in which a law enforcement officer receives an injury
in the active performance of duties as a law enforcement
officer include but are not limited to instances when:
        (1) the injury is received as a result of a wilful act
    of violence committed other than by the officer and a
    relationship exists between the commission of such act and
    the officer's performance of his duties as a law
    enforcement officer, whether or not the injury is received
    while the officer is on duty as a law enforcement officer;
        (2) the injury is received by the officer while the
    officer is attempting to prevent the commission of a
    criminal act by another or attempting to apprehend an
    individual the officer suspects has committed a crime,
    whether or not the injury is received while the officer is
    on duty as a law enforcement officer;
        (3) the injury is received by the officer while the
    officer is travelling to or from his employment as a law
    enforcement officer or during any meal break, or other
    break, which takes place during the period in which the
    officer is on duty as a law enforcement officer.
    In the case of an Armed Forces member, "killed in the line
of duty" means losing one's life while on active duty in
connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the
United States, Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
    (f) "Volunteer fireman" means a person having principal
employment other than as a fireman, but who is carried on the
rolls of a regularly constituted fire department either for the
purpose of the prevention or control of fire or the underwater
recovery of drowning victims, the members of which are under
the jurisdiction of the corporate authorities of a city,
village, incorporated town, or fire protection district, and
includes a volunteer member of a fire department organized
under the "General Not for Profit Corporation Act", approved
July 17, 1943, as now or hereafter amended, which is under
contract with any city, village, incorporated town, fire
protection district, or persons residing therein, for fire
fighting services. "Volunteer fireman" does not mean an
individual who volunteers assistance without being regularly
enrolled as a fireman.
    (g) "Civil defense worker" means any person employed by the
State or a local governmental entity as, or otherwise serving
as, a member of a civil defense work force, including volunteer
civil defense work forces engaged in serving the public
interest during periods of disaster, whether natural or
man-made.
    (h) "Civil air patrol member" means any person employed by
the State or a local governmental entity as, or otherwise
serving as, a member of the organization commonly known as the
"Civil Air Patrol", including volunteer members of the
organization commonly known as the "Civil Air Patrol".
    (i) "Paramedic" means an Emergency Medical
Technician-Paramedic certified by the Illinois Department of
Public Health under the Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Systems Act, and all other emergency medical personnel
certified by the Illinois Department of Public Health who are
members of an organized body or not-for-profit corporation
under the jurisdiction of a city, village, incorporated town,
fire protection district or county, that provides emergency
medical treatment to persons of a defined geographical area.
    (j) "State employee" means any employee as defined in
Section 14-103.05 of the Illinois Pension Code, as now or
hereafter amended.
    (k) "Chaplain" means an individual who:
        (1) is a chaplain of (i) a fire department or (ii) a
    police department or other agency consisting of law
    enforcement officers; and
        (2) has been designated a chaplain by (i) the fire
    department, police department, or other agency or an
    officer or body having jurisdiction over the department or
    agency or (ii) a labor organization representing the
    firemen or law enforcement officers.
    (l) "Armed Forces member" means an Illinois resident who
is: a member of the Armed Forces of the United States; a member
of the Illinois National Guard while on active military service
pursuant to an order of the President of the United States; or
a member of any reserve component of the Armed Forces of the
United States while on active military service pursuant to an
order of the President of the United States.
(Source: P.A. 93-1047, eff. 10-18-04.)
 
    (820 ILCS 315/3)   (from Ch. 48, par. 283)
    Sec. 3. Duty death benefit.
    (a) If a claim therefor is made within one year of the date
of death of a law enforcement officer, civil defense worker,
civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, State
employee, or Armed Forces member killed in the line of duty,
compensation shall be paid to the person designated by the law
enforcement officer, civil defense worker, civil air patrol
member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, State employee, or Armed
Forces member. However, if the Armed Forces member was killed
in the line of duty before October 18, 2004 the effective date
of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly, the claim
must be made within one year of October 18, 2004 the effective
date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly.
    (b) The amount of compensation, except for an Armed Forces
member, shall be $10,000 if the death in the line of duty
occurred prior to January 1, 1974; $20,000 if such death
occurred after December 31, 1973 and before July 1, 1983;
$50,000 if such death occurred on or after July 1, 1983 and
before January 1, 1996; $100,000 if the death occurred on or
after January 1, 1996 and before May 18, 2001; $118,000 if the
death occurred on or after May 18, 2001 and before July 1, 2002
the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General
Assembly; and $259,038 if the death occurred occurs on or after
July 1, 2002 the effective date of this amendatory Act of the
92nd General Assembly and before January 1, 2003. For an Armed
Forces member killed in the line of duty (i) at any time before
January 1, 2005, the compensation is $259,038 plus amounts
equal to the increases for 2003 and 2004 determined under
subsection (c) and (ii) on or after January 1, 2005, the
compensation is the amount determined under item (i) plus the
applicable increases for 2005 and thereafter determined under
subsection (c).
    (c) Except as provided in subsection (b), for For deaths
occurring on or after January 1, 2003, the death compensation
rate for death in the line of duty occurring in a particular
calendar year shall be the death compensation rate for death
occurring in the previous calendar year (or in the case of
deaths occurring in 2003, the rate in effect on December 31,
2002) increased by a percentage thereof equal to the percentage
increase, if any, in the index known as the Consumer Price
Index for All Urban Consumers: U.S. city average, unadjusted,
for all items, as published by the United States Department of
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the 12 months ending
with the month of June of that previous calendar year.
    (d) If no beneficiary is designated or surviving at the
death of the law enforcement officer, civil defense worker,
civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, State
employee, or Armed Forces member killed in the line of duty,
the compensation shall be paid as follows:
        (1) (a) when there is a surviving spouse, the entire
    sum shall be paid to the spouse;
        (2) (b) when there is no surviving spouse, but a
    surviving descendant of the decedent, the entire sum shall
    be paid to the decedent's descendants per stirpes;
        (3) (c) when there is neither a surviving spouse nor a
    surviving descendant, the entire sum shall be paid to the
    parents of the decedent in equal parts, allowing to the
    surviving parent, if one is dead, the entire sum; and
        (4) (d) when there is no surviving spouse, descendant
    or parent of the decedent, but there are surviving brothers
    or sisters, or descendants of a brother or sister, who were
    receiving their principal support from the decedent at his
    death, the entire sum shall be paid, in equal parts, to the
    dependent brothers or sisters or dependent descendant of a
    brother or sister. Dependency shall be determined by the
    Court of Claims based upon the investigation and report of
    the Attorney General.
    (e) When there is no beneficiary designated or surviving at
the death of the law enforcement officer, civil defense worker,
civil air patrol member, paramedic, fireman, chaplain, State
employee, or Armed Forces member killed in the line of duty and
no surviving spouse, descendant, parent, dependent brother or
sister, or dependent descendant of a brother or sister, no
compensation shall be payable under this Act.
    (f) No part of such compensation may be paid to any other
person for any efforts in securing such compensation.
    (g) This amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly
applies to claims made on or after October 18, 2004 with
respect to an Armed Forces member killed in the line of duty.
(Source: P.A. 92-3, eff. 5-18-01; 92-609, eff. 7-1-02; 93-1047,
eff. 10-18-04.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.