Two officers injured, motion seeks risk allowance for police

Two Cantonal Police officers remain hospitalised after Thursday evening's accident in the Piumogna tunnel on the A2 motorway. A fleeing driver, after forcing his way through a roadblock, had rammed their patrol car. The incident has again drawn attention to the risks of the job and prompted a new parliamentary motion, which calls for restoring a risk allowance for officers and strengthening criminal-law protection for police officers and other particularly exposed public employees.

The OCST union and the Ticino section of the Swiss Federation of Police Officers also spoke out about the incident. It is not an isolated case: in July, an explosion in Leontica injured three other officers.

The text of the motion does not go into the technical details of any financial recognition, but its backers already have a clear idea: not a percentage of salary, as elsewhere, but a fixed amount equal for everyone. «L'idea di fondo è un'indennità fissa che vada a tutti coloro che corrono dei rischi regolarmente. Pensiamo ai gendarmi, alle squadre speciali, ma anche agli ispettori» (the basic idea is a fixed allowance for everyone who regularly runs risks, such as patrol officers, special units, but also inspectors), explains cantonal MP and OCST union official Claudio Isabella, a co-signer of the motion. By his estimate, between 300 and 400 people within the police force could be entitled to the allowance.

The comparison with Geneva and the budget question

In Geneva, the risk allowance for officers is calculated at 15% of a given salary category. Isabella instead proposes an identical sum for all those entitled. If adopted, the principle could also open the discussion for other categories of public employees exposed to danger, a prospect the co-signer says he welcomes, while noting that the motion's financial request concerns police officers only for now.

The level of pay is another reason behind the request. According to Isabella, starting salaries in the police force begin at just over 4,000 francs, a figure he considers too low given the responsibilities and risks involved.

The question of cantonal finances remains open. Isabella acknowledges that the timing is not favourable for such a request, but argues that budget difficulties should not prevent investment in security and in the staff who provide it. «Siamo noi istituzioni, in primis, che dobbiamo tutelare chi ci garantisce la sicurezza» (it is institutions like ours that must, first and foremost, protect those who guarantee our security), he says.