Q: I served as a military policeman on active duty in the Army from 1981 to 1983. I purchased this time for credit for my federal retirement. Can
this time be used under the FERS law enforcement officer retirement? The MP duties meet the requirements and definition of a federal LEO under FERS. I believe CSRS does not credit this service.
A: No. The law is clear. Only civilian law enforcement officer service counts when determining an employee’s eligibility to retire under the special provision and receive the more generous annuity computation. When you are eligible to retire as a law enforcement officer, those years of active-duty service for which you made a deposit would be computed using the standard formula.
2 Comments
I know this is an old post but I’m currently in this situation now as a former Army CID Special Agent. It being tough to obtain further background information on this issue I’m thinking OPM made the rule of not counting active duty towards 6(c) not considering the actual criminal investigator within the military, but rather just lumping all military occupations into one. Additionally, the fact that active duty time can in fact be bought back and applied to our regular FERS civilian retirement shows that the “civilian” requirement was waived. It seems it should just be a matter of buying back that time at the higher rate.
It may seem that way, but it isn’t going to happen. Credit for employment prior to being hired as a federal law enforcement officer has never been given toward the 20 years of actual service needed to qualify for a federal law enforcement retirement.