§ 24-11-437 - Credited service -- Purchase of former law enforcement service.
24-11-437. Credited service -- Purchase of former law enforcement service.
(a) If the board of trustees for a policemen's pension and relief fund decides to extend this benefit for its members and if the pension fund will be actuarially sound as determined by the actuary for the Arkansas Fire and Police Pension Review Board after this benefit increase is extended to members, any member of the policemen's pension and relief fund as established by this subchapter shall be entitled to purchase credited service in the system, not to exceed two (2) years, for service rendered by the member as a law enforcement officer in this state prior to the member's employment covered by the policemen's pension and relief fund.
(b) He or she may purchase the credited service if:
(1) He or she has participated in the policemen's pension and relief fund for at least eighteen (18) years; and
(2) He or she contributes to the member's deposit account a sum of money equal to the amount of the combined employee and employer contribution made by or on behalf of the member to the system based upon the contributions for the last month of the employee's eighteenth year of service, multiplied by the number of months of law enforcement service the member is eligible for and desires to purchase under this section with interest thereon at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum from the date of eligibility to purchase the service to the date of purchase.
(c) A member who purchases credited service in the system as authorized in this section shall not be entitled to receive retirement benefits under the system until the date on which he or she has twenty (20) years of actual service under the system or would have had twenty (20) years of actual service under the system if the member had continued his or her employment.
(d) When a member purchases credited service as authorized in this section and terminates employment before his or her twentieth anniversary as a member of the system, that portion of the insurance premium tax returned to the employing city for credit to policemen's pension funds that was previously credited to the policemen's pension and relief fund for the position held by the member shall continue to be credited to that fund until the date on which the member would have been a member of the system for twenty (20) years had he or she continued employment.