Appointed police chiefs of cities, towns and villages that have formed their own police pension fund under Article 3 of the Illinois Pension Code have the option to participate in either the local police pension fund or in IMRF SLEP. Participation under IMRF's Regular plan is not an option for these police chiefs.
A chief of police who elects to participate in IMRF as a SLEP member must complete IMRF Form entitled, ”Election of Police Chief to Participate as a SLEP Member.”
A pre-populated form is created as part of the online enrollment process. The employer will download the pre-populated form, sign it, have the employee sign it and mail it to IMRF along with the signed enrollment form. (Please note: if the police chief is the first employee to enroll in SLEP for your employer, i.e., that your employer does not have a SLEP plan, the online enrollment process will advise you to call IMRF’s Member Services for assistance.)
The member can access this form by visiting the Member Access area on IMRF's website (www.imrf.org).
Refer to Paragraph 3.80C for information on eligibility requirements for police chiefs.
After electing to join IMRF’s SLEP program, the police chief may transfer police service previously established in any Illinois police pension fund to IMRF. Before hiring a police chief, you may want to know if the police chief has any local police pension plan service eligible for transfer into IMRF.
Newly appointed police chiefs have 90 days from the date of hire to elect to participate in either the local police fund or in IMRF SLEP.
If the Police Chief chooses to join IMRF SLEP:
Once the police chief elects to participate in IMRF’s SLEP program, that election cannot be revoked. Therefore, should a chief elect to participate in IMRF SLEP under employer A, upon changing positions to a patrolman under employer A, or even a patrolman under employer B, the chief must continue to participate under IMRF’s SLEP plan.
Before hiring a police chief, the employer may want to know if the police chief has any local police pension plan service eligible for transfer into IMRF. After electing to join IMRF’s SLEP program, the police chief may transfer police service previously established in any Illinois police pension fund to IMRF. See Paragraph 630.13.
The chief may also wish to get an estimate of the cost to transfer any local police pension past service to IMRF before making the choice of IMRF SLEP. IMRF recommends the police chief review and evaluate the benefits of the local police pension fund and the SLEP Plan to determine which plan is most advantageous.
If the Police Chief chooses to join the police pension fund:
If the police chief chooses to join the police pension fund, the police chief can decide to join IMRF’s SLEP program at a later date if he is still a police chief for a qualifying IMRF SLEP employer.
If the Police Chief chooses to join neither SLEP nor the police pension fund:
If the police chief chooses not to join the IMRF SLEP program or the police pension fund, the police chief will not be able to join the IMRF SLEP program at a later date as a police chief.