I have to wonder if the rates are so high for law enforcement officers that some of the smaller towns are not getting it...both of these officers worked for very small towns.

such a high risk job and the cities aren't required to provide it? they can get hurt just chasing after suspects not to mention the violence they face or being injured during a wreck if they are chasing someone.

I suspect, though, that municipalities offer it to police forces. If not, I suspect their unions would ask for it. For such dangerous jobs as those.

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Here is how I think things happened with the history of this benefit. Long ago, before workers' compensation got started (I think state by state in the US), the only recourse for an injured worker was to sue his employer for negligence. It was hard to win, and costly if one lost, so it was hard on the worker. Yet sometimes workers won, and employers did not like the big payouts.

So I think early last century business, labor, and government made a compromise. First, they would require businesses to pay into an insurance pool, and the injured worker would be compensated without having to sue, if they had a valid claim. On the flip side, there would be no blame laid on the business. There would be no costly annoying court cases, etc. No big payouts.

So the workers were happy since they did not have to sue, and the businesses were happy because they could no longer be sued. At least that is how I understand it. I may be wrong. I would Google it if I were you, and I am sure there are volumes on the subject. I am too lazy now.

I only know this because I worked on a project for my job last year that studied this benefit. There was a lot I did not know, yet now I know more!

This is good. I think I had the right idea about it, more or less:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_compensation