BRIAN R. MARVEL
PORAC President

Twenty-Five Years Later: The Line Still Holds

Twenty-five years have passed since the morning the towers fell.

On that clear September day in 2001, California peace officers stood where they always stand — on the streets of their cities and towns, answering the calls that came and, in between calls, watching the news with the rest of the nation while feeling the same sharp recognition that something fundamental had shifted. Some left their posts to travel east and help New York at Ground Zero. Many more stayed home and prepared for whatever might come next. In the weeks that followed, a generation of men and women looked at the profession and decided the risk was worth the duty. They signed on. They trained. They put on the badge knowing that the world had changed and the line they would hold would be tested in ways their predecessors could not fully imagine.

That generation is now senior. They are the sergeants, lieutenants and chiefs mentoring the officers who will one day replace them. They carry the memory of that day not as a distant historical marker, but as a living standard: when danger appears, you move toward it.

The cost of that standard did not end when the last piece of steel was removed from Ground Zero. More first responders have since died from illnesses linked to the attacks than perished on the day itself. Cancers, respiratory disease and the slow erosion of health continue to claim those who ran toward the smoke. Their sacrifice remains unfinished. We honor them not only with ceremony, but by refusing to treat their commitment as a one-time event. It is a continuous obligation. Sometimes that obligation requires us to take the case to Congress. As the memory of that morning recedes with each budget season, we must remind those who hold the purse that these men and women are still paying the price of that day.

That same willingness to run toward danger still defines the profession in California. It is the reason nearly 90,000 peace officers continue to report for duty every day. Yet the capacity to meet the next threat, whether a local crisis or a national moment on the scale of the recent World Cup events or the upcoming 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, depends on more than courage. It depends on whether the profession can attract and keep the men and women capable of carrying that duty forward.

This is where the question of a secure pension becomes more than a matter of compensation. It is a question of continuity.

A defined-benefit pension is not a luxury. It is the institutional promise that those who accept the physical and psychological costs of public safety will not be left to face old age without the means to live with dignity. When that promise is weakened, recruitment suffers and retention declines. Departments find themselves shorthanded, overtime costs rise and injuries begin to pile up and take longer to recover from. Experience walks out the door. The line thins.

PORAC has joined with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) to lead the effort to restore fairness and sustainability to the retirement system for public safety personnel. The two-tiered structure created more than a decade ago has produced a measurable gap between those hired before the reforms and those who entered afterward. That gap is not abstract. It shows up in vacancies, the difficulty of filling academies, forced overtime and the quiet decisions of experienced officers to leave the profession earlier than they otherwise would. Our shared work is aimed at closing that gap in a measured, responsible way, strengthening the ability of agencies to recruit and retain the people the public depends on, while remaining mindful of fiscal realities.

This is not a partisan quarrel. It is a practical recognition that the same officers asked to protect major international events must first be able to see a viable career in California. This is an investment in public safety. When staffing is stretched, the temptation arises to look outside the state for temporary solutions. We believe California could and should possess the public safety officers needed to meet the demands of the 2028 Games and every other challenge that will follow, but only if the profession is given the tools to attract and retain them. Prioritizing California personnel, maintaining rigorous standards and addressing the root causes of understaffing are not obstacles to readiness. They are the conditions of it.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the line still holds because the men and women who stand on it choose to hold it. That choice is renewed with every shift, every academy class, every decision to remain in a profession that exacts a lifelong price. The least we can do is ensure that the institutions surrounding them — pensions, training, staffing and public support — are equal to the standard they set.

The line holds only if we keep it strong. That is the unbroken promise.