The increased scrutiny faced by all Federal Pretrial and Probation Officers and assistants warrants particular attention to protecting yourself from civil lawsuits and allegations of professional or other alleged misconduct by your agency or some other entity.

Each time you are assigned to investigate an offender, supervise a defendant, prepare a report, ensure compliance of a court order or become responsible for monitoring various activities of offenders on probation, your professional liability exposure increases. You make difficult decisions every day, purchasing protection liability insurance is an easy one. For coverage effective today, buy now.

There are three areas of exposure that a professional liability policy responds to for Federal Pretrial and Probation Officers: civil law suits, administrative and disciplinary matters, and criminal investigations. For instance, PLI becomes necessary when:

• An officer becomes involved in a misconduct or administrative matter/investigation for a job related action; or
• An officer is sued personally for a job-related action (i.e., Bivens action); or
• An officer is subject to a criminal investigation for a job-related action.

Click here for detailed information on Civil Exposures, Administrative Exposures or Criminal Exposures.  Listen to law enforcement issues on Audio.

The exposure to civil lawsuits are the very reason that the DOJ and several federal employee associations collaborated over 20 years ago to create the concept of PLI for federal employees. They wanted to protect federal employees and allow affordable legal representation and indemnity protection for those circumstances in which federal employees were held personally liable and had to provide their own defense - even though they were within their scope of employment or rendering a professional federal service.

This is also the very reason that Congress enacted special legislation requiring agencies to reimburse all law enforcement officers up to ½ of the cost of professional liability insurance. This congressional action clearly demonstrates Congress’ official support and belief that officers have a sense of security while making the tough decisions that are part of the job. With annual costs at $270 and a net cost of only $135 a year after reimbursement for our minimum coverage limit, there is no reason for a FPPO not to have career and financial security protections in place.

FEDS works with the Federal Probation and Pretrial Officers Association (FPPOA) and many other federal employee communities and associations to ensure that we provide the protection officers need to do their jobs. Please read what these associations and other industry leaders have to say about professional protection and why they recommend FEDS in testimonials and endorsements.

FEDS founder is a former employee of a federal law enforcement agency and encourages all federal employees to be as informed as possible about the benefits of having PLI protection in place. Read more about how and why FEDS got started here. And if you can't find answers to your questions in FAQ's, please call us at 301-229-2481.