25-13-3 - Eligibility for service retirement benefits.
§ 25-13-3. Eligibility for service retirement benefits.
Where used in this chapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the term "Highway Patrol or Highway Safety Patrol" for the purpose of establishing membership in this system for persons presently employed by the Highway Safety Patrol shall mean and include all the officers of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol who have completed a course of instruction in an authorized highway patrol training school on general law enforcement, and who have served for a period of at least five (5) years prior to the passage of this chapter as a uniformed officer of the Highway Safety Patrol in the enforcement of the traffic laws of the State of Mississippi, or in the driver's license division, or who are now engaged in such service. New members shall include all the officers of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol who have completed a course of instruction in an authorized highway patrol training school on general law enforcement, and who serve as sworn officers of the Highway Patrol in the enforcement of the laws of the State of Mississippi.
Any former sworn officer of the Highway Safety Patrol who returns to service with the Highway Safety Patrol in any capacity, and who has had not less than two (2) years of prior service as a sworn officer of the Highway Safety Patrol, and who was disabled by wounds or accident in line of duty may become a member of the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System even though his present duties would not otherwise qualify him for such membership, and he may continue such membership so long as he remains in the employ of the Highway Safety Patrol.
Membership in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System shall be retroactive to the date of such patrolman's return to employment with the Highway Safety Patrol, and any funds contributed by him, previous to the passage of this chapter, to the Public Employees' Retirement System shall be transferred to his credit in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System, and the employer's contributions made to the Public Employees' Retirement System for such patrolman shall also be transferred to the employer's credit in the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System; and the difference between the contributions for both the employer and the employee made to the Public Employees' Retirement System, and those which should have been made to the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System by both employer and employee for such patrolman since the date of his return to the Highway Safety Patrol shall be paid into the Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System.
In order to be eligible for service retirement benefits under this retirement system any member must have served at least five (5) years as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol engaged in the enforcement of the laws of the State of Mississippi, or at least five (5) years as a sworn agent of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, or a combination of at least five (5) years as a sworn agent of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol. If such officer is transferred from duty making him eligible for membership in this retirement system to other duties for which credit is not allowed by this system, and he has not been credited with a minimum of five (5) years in this system as a sworn officer of the Highway Patrol engaged in the enforcement of the laws of this state, then a sufficient amount of contributions by both the employer and the employee, as determined by the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall be transferred from this system to his account in the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi to make him a member of that system with full credit for his years of service with the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, and he shall become a member of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi with prior service credits. Any funds to the employees' credit in the Highway Safety Patrol System above the amount required to make him fully and currently credited in the Public Employees' Retirement System shall be refunded to him at the time of the transfer of his account.
Sources: Codes, 1942, § 8090-52; Laws, 1958, ch. 543, § 2; Laws, 1962, ch. 581, § 1; Laws, 1991, ch. 468 § 4, eff from and after passage (approved March 29, 1991).