NBC 4 Looks At Impact Of Police DROP Program

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An issue is looming for Columbus police.

The deferred retirement option plan or DROP is an optional benefit that allows eligible police officers and firefighters to accumulate a lump sum of money for retirement.

It went into effect in 2003 and the first year police personnel can walk away is in 2011.

For Sgt. Jeff Sacksteder, his life is about solving the unsolved.

"(We are) probably in the neighborhood of 600 unsolved homicides," he said.

But his desire to separate good from bad developed early as a street police officer for 10 years -- starting near Franklinton.

"Looking for the bad guys, the thrill of the hunt, hunting the beast, I guess," he said.

But starting in 2011, the Columbus Division of Police will lose Sacksteder and 95 others through the DROP program.

"We've never had 50 retire in one month. It's astronomical to have a city deal with this financially and with personnel," said FOP President Jim Gilbert.

The issue has been on hand for eight years when DROP became reality in 2003. For the City of Columbus, they knew it would have an impact.

"There is some nervousness, but the division has worked on a mentoring program to capture some of it," said Antone White, of the Department of Public Safety.

The bottom line is that when the city loses hundreds of years of experience, they can't simply reload.

"Some upper management and specialized units may be a learning curve issue," Sacksteder said. "Through the learning curve that any person goes through, that it's your life experiences you learn from and take from case to case each investigation."

Inside the cold case library, there is still plenty of work to be done, but a board shows the amount of success the group has seen.

"That is a lot of hard work. It is. Guys have worked hard over the years," he said.

But the faces that have worked on many of the cold cases could be replaced starting with Sgt. Sacksteder.

"(Sacksteder's) entire unit could be wiped out from DROP (including) detectives with 30 to 35 years experience working on the cases," Gilbert said.

Sacksteder said he isn't completely comfortable with walking away.

"I think we all wrestle with retirement in different ways and we handle it differently," he said. "I'd be lying if I didn't think some of the cases I had my fingerprints on would get solved eventually."

The challenge is to know find the funding to balance the numbers. It could force the city to be creative.

"If we have folks doing civilian jobs, maybe we can put them on the street and it would go a long ways to keeping our numbers up," White said.

Getting everyone up to speed won't be easy, Sacksteder said.

"It takes maybe two years in a position to settle in so you feel you have the hang of this. It's no different here," he said.

Sacksteder said he thinks the program will work and the citizens will see a strong force for years to come. He said younger personnel will bring new gifts, like enhanced computer knowledge.

Still, he said that he knows walking away will not be easy.

"Is there a case out there that … I want to get this done before I walk out the door? Yes. But I'll keep that to myself," he said.