Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 21 - MUNICIPALITIES (§§ 21-1-1 — 21-47-5) › Chapter 29 - EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEMS (§§ 21-29-1 — 21-29-333) › Article 5 - DISABILITY AND RELIEF FUND FOR FIREMEN AND POLICEMEN UNDER LAWS 1930, 55 (§§ 21-29-201 — 21-29-261) › Section 21-29-245 - Retirement benefits

If any member of said fire and/or police department who has been in paid fire and/or police department service for as long as twenty (20) years before making application hereinafter mentioned, the last ten (10) years of which shall have been continuous in the city in which the application is made, shall make written application for retirement and relief, the board of disability and relief shall without medical examinations of disability, retire him from active service in said fire and/or police department. Upon such retirement from active service said disability and relief board shall order the payment to such retired member monthly from said fund a sum equal to fifty percent (50%) of the average monthly base salary and longevity pay received as salary by such member in the six-month period next before the filing of such application in said fire and/or police department. Such payments shall thereafter be made to said retired member for life, such payments to be known as "retired relief."
Any member of the fire and/or police department who has been in paid fire and/or police department service for longer than twenty (20) years shall be entitled to and shall receive additional retired relief payment for life in a sum equal to one and seven-tenths percent (1.7%) of the same monthly base salary and longevity pay received by such member in the six-month period next preceding the filing of said application for each full year of service in excess of twenty (20) years' service. However, such additional retired relief payment shall be paid only for each year served after July 1, 1966. No retired relief payment to any member shall exceed sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average monthly base salary and longevity pay received by a member for the six-month period next preceding the filing of said application, except such other additional benefits as may be hereinafter provided.
The board of disability and relief shall, when a member of the fire and/or police department completes thirty-five (35) years of paid employment, or attains the age of sixty (60), whichever occurs first, retire him from active service in said fire and/or police department and order the payment of such funds as the member is entitled to under this article.
Periods of time in which a member may have been inactive on account of physical or mental disability shall not be excluded in computing the twenty-year period and the ten-year period hereinabove mentioned. Neither shall there be excluded therefrom periods of time within which a member may have been absent from his employment while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States, or any civil employee engaged by the Armed Forces of the United States while serving outside the continental United States, in time of war during World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Cuban Crisis, Berlin Crisis, Vietnam Conflict, or when involuntarily called on active duty, provided that the maximum period for such creditable service shall be four (4) years unless positive proof can be furnished by such person that he was retained in the Armed Forces by cause beyond his control, and without opportunity of discharge, and provided that the discharge or release of such member from the Armed Forces was under conditions other than dishonorable. Any member who has been retired or is voluntarily retired hereunder, or who has received relief or disability benefits hereunder, shall be required to report such duties as then may be required of them.
Codes, 1942, § 3494-18; Laws, 1924, ch. 189; Laws, 1930, ch. 55 § 16; Laws, 1948, ch. 421; Laws, 1966, ch. 596, § 1; Laws, 1968, ch. 575, § 1; Laws, 1970, ch. 513, § 1; Laws, 1973, ch. 404, § 1; Laws, 1987, ch. 511, § 33, eff. 4/30/1987.