The following words and phrases, as used in this Chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly required by context, shall have the following meanings:

            (1) “Accumulated contributions” shall mean the sum of all the amounts deducted from the compensation of a member and credited to his individual account in the annuity savings fund together with regular interest thereon as provided in La. Rev. Stat. 11:2227.

            (2) “Actuarial equivalent” shall mean a benefit of equivalent value to the accumulated contributions, annuity, or benefits, as the case may be, computed on the basis of such interest and mortality assumptions as are adopted in accordance with the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 11:2225(D).

            (3) “Annuity reserve” shall mean the present value of all payments to be made on account of any annuity, or benefit in lieu of any annuity, computed upon the basis of such mortality tables as shall be adopted by the board of trustees, and regular interest.

            (4)(a) For members first employed on or before December 31, 2012, “average final compensation” shall mean the average annual earned compensation of an employee for any period of thirty-six successive or joined months of service as an employee during which the said earned compensation was the highest. In case of interruption of employment, the thirty-six month period shall be computed by joining employment periods immediately preceding and succeeding the interruption. The earnings to be considered for the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings for the first through the twelfth months. The earnings to be considered for the final twelve months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth months.

            (b) For members first employed on or after January 1, 2013, “average final compensation” means the average annual earned compensation of a member for the sixty highest months of successive employment, or for the highest sixty successive joined months of employment where interruption of service occurred. The earnings to be considered for the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth month shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the first through the twelfth month. The earnings to be considered for the twenty-fifth through the thirty-sixth month shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth month. The earnings to be considered for the thirty-seventh through the forty-eighth month shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the twenty-fifth through the thirty-sixth month. The earnings for the final twelve months shall not exceed one hundred fifteen percent of the earnings of the thirty-seventh through the forty-eighth month. The limitations on the computation of average final compensation contained in this Subparagraph shall not apply to any twelve-month period during which compensation increased by more than fifteen percent over the previous twelve-month period solely because of an increase in compensation by a uniform systemwide increase adopted by a local governing authority.

            (5) “Beneficiary” shall mean any person designated by a member or retiree to receive an annuity, survivor benefit, or other benefit as provided by this Chapter.

            (6) “Board of trustees” shall mean the board provided for in La. Rev. Stat. 11:2225 to administer the retirement system.

            (7) “Creditable service” shall mean service for which credit is allowable as provided in La. Rev. Stat. 11:2218.

            (8) “Defined benefit plan” shall mean a pension plan established and maintained by an employer primarily to provide systematically for the payment of definitely determinable benefits to employees over a period of years after retirement based upon such factors as years of service and compensation received by such employees.

            (9) “Defined contribution plan” shall mean a pension plan established and maintained by an employer which provides benefits based upon amounts contributed to an employee’s individual account, plus any earnings allocated to the account, for distribution to the employee or his beneficiary either at retirement, after a fixed number of years, or upon the occurrence of some specified event.

            (10) “Earnable compensation” shall mean the full amount of compensation earned by an employee for a given month, including supplemental pay paid by the state of Louisiana, but shall not include overtime.

            (11) “Employee” shall mean any of the following classifications:

            (a)(i) Any full-time police officer, empowered to make arrests.

            (ii) Any full-time police officer, decommissioned due to illness or injury, employed by a municipality of the state of Louisiana, and engaged in law enforcement.

            (iii) Any person in a position as defined in the municipal fire and police civil service system who is employed on a full-time basis by a police department of any municipality of this state, who is under the direction of a chief of police, and who is paid from the budget of the applicable police department.

            (iv) Any person listed in this Subparagraph shall only be defined as an employee if he is earning at least three hundred seventy-five dollars per month excluding state supplemental pay.

            (b) Any elected chief of police whose salary is at least one thousand dollars per month.

            (c) Any academy recruit, who shall be defined as a full-time municipal employee, who is participating in, or who is awaiting participation in, a formal training program as required by Peace Officer Standards and Training Certification, previous to commission as a municipal police officer, with complete law enforcement officer authority.

            (d) Any full-time secretary to an appointed chief or elected chief of police.

            (e) Any full-time employee of this system.

            (f) Any legal investigator employed by the city of Baton Rouge and parish of East Baton Rouge in the parish attorney’s office who receives state supplemental pay and who transferred into the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System on the date of February 26, 2000, as a result of the merger agreement between the system and the city-parish of that date. Such a legal investigator with a break in service after February 26, 2000, shall retain membership or retiree status only to the extent of his deferred vested benefit attributable to service credit earned prior to the break in service.

            (g) Any member who retires after June 30, 2021, and who is employed on a full-time basis by a police department of any municipality in Louisiana.

            (h) Employee shall not mean a city or ward marshal or deputy marshal, nor shall this term be construed to include any elected councilman or mayor of any city.

            (12) “Employer” shall mean any municipality in the state of Louisiana which employs a full-time police officer, empowered to make arrests, or which has an elected chief of police whose salary is at least one thousand dollars per month, and the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System.

            (13) “Full-time” shall mean employment on a permanent, regularly scheduled basis for at least an average of thirty hours per week.

            (14) “Medical board” shall mean the State Medical Disability Board.

            (15) “Member” shall include any employee, as defined in Paragraph (11) of this Section, included in the membership of this system as provided in La. Rev. Stat. 11:2214. In any case of doubt the board of trustees shall be the sole judge as to eligibility for membership.

            (16) “Member’s annuity” shall mean that monthly payment provided by the member’s accumulated contributions at the time of regular retirement, or death, computed upon the basis of such mortality tables as shall be adopted by the board of trustees, and regular interest.

            (17) “Membership service” shall mean service as an employee or elected official while a member of this system.

            (18) “Prior service” shall mean service rendered prior to the enrollment of an employee into this retirement system, as a municipal policeman, as a member of the state police, or as a sheriff or deputy sheriff in Louisiana for which credit is not given in any other retirement system; provided that notwithstanding any provision of this Chapter that may be to the contrary, no credit whatsoever shall be given in this retirement system, whether as prior service or creditable service, for any out of state service, nor shall any credit for prior service be given to any person who becomes a member after July 31, 1976, except that any person employed by any municipality and is required to pay social security contributions for such employment by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare shall receive prior service credit provided he becomes a member of this retirement system prior to January 1, 1977.

            (19) “Retirement” shall mean withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance granted under the provisions of this Chapter.

            (20) “Retirement allowance” shall mean any benefit paid to a member under La. Rev. Stat. 11:2220(A) or any optional benefit payable in lieu thereof.

            (21) “Retirement system” or “system” shall mean the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System as established in La. Rev. Stat. 11:2211.

            (22) “Service” shall mean service rendered as an employee as described in Paragraph (11) of this Section.

            (23) “Special needs trust” shall mean a trust that is established for the sole benefit of a member’s child who meets the definition of an individual with a disability under the federal Social Security Act, that permits such child to qualify for public benefits, including but not limited to those under the federal Social Security Act such as Supplemental Security Income and Medical Assistance, and that terminates upon the death of the child.

            (24) “Student” shall mean a person who satisfies both of the following:

            (a) The person is enrolled in a high school or postsecondary education institution duly accredited or approved by the appropriate state, regional, or professional accrediting agency which is recognized by the state in which it is located or by the United States Department of Education pursuant to the applicable laws, rules, or regulations.

            (b) The person is enrolled in a sufficient number of courses and classes in such institution to be classified as a full-time regular student under the criteria used by the institution in which he is enrolled. The educational institution shall provide written notification to the system that the person is in full-time status.

            (25)(a) “Surviving child” shall mean an unmarried person under the age of eighteen years or an unmarried student under the age of twenty-three years, if the person or student is one of the following:

            (i) The issue of a marriage of a member of this system.

            (ii) The legally adopted child of a member of this system.

            (iii) A child born outside of marriage of a female member of this system.

            (iv) The child of a male member of this system, if a court of competent jurisdiction has, pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code, rendered a judgment of filiation declaring the paternity of such member for the child or the member has formally acknowledged the child.

            (b) “Surviving child” shall also mean a person, regardless of age, who meets one of the criteria in Items (a)(i) through (iv) of this Paragraph who has a total physical disability or intellectual disability, as certified by the medical board, if the person had the disability at the time of death of the member or acquired the disability prior to the attainment of age eighteen and is dependent upon the surviving spouse or other legal guardian for subsistence.

            (26) “Survivor’s benefit” shall mean any benefit paid to a survivor of a member under La. Rev. Stat. 11:2220(B), 2241.8, or 2242.8.

            Added by Acts 1973, No. 189, §1. Amended by Acts 1974, No. 389, §1; Acts 1975, No. 377, §1; Acts 1976, No. 603, §1; Acts 1978, No. 727, §5, eff. Jan. 1, 1979; Acts 1979, No. 105, §1; Acts 1982, No. 271, §1; Acts 1986, No. 605, §3; Acts 1988, 2^nd Ex. Sess., No. 6, §3, eff. Oct. 31, 1988; Redesignated from La. Rev. Stat. 33:2372 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 1992, No. 262, §1; Acts 1992, No. 553, §1, eff. July 1, 1992; Acts 1993, No. 758, §1, eff. June 22, 1993; Acts 1995, No. 576, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1179, §1, eff. July 1, 1999; Acts 2011, No. 238, §1, eff. June 30, 2011; Acts 2012, No. 522, §1; Acts 2013, No. 236, §1, eff. June 30, 2013; Acts 2018, No. 345, §1, eff. June 30, 2018; Acts 2020, No. 249, §1, eff. July 1, 2020.

NOTE: See Acts 2013, No. 236, §2, regarding retroactivity of Subparagraph (11)(f) of this Section as amended by that Act.