Peace officers run on the same special rulebook as firefighters — the salary benefit, the presumptions, the top-of-schedule occupational group — plus one rule that matters uniquely often in police work: the lower psych standard for violent events. Here’s the whole stack, with ratings computed by the engine.
The §4850 year
Qualifying peace officers — city police, deputy sheriffs, and others — don’t get ordinary TD. Labor Code §4850 pays up to one year of full salary, tax-free, in its place, per qualifying injury (sworn CHP officers get a parallel benefit under §4800.5). It is the most valuable wage benefit in the comp system.
The presumptions — and the apportionment shield
For qualifying officers the Labor Code presumes several conditions industrial: heart trouble, hernia, and pneumonia under the §3212 family, cancer after exposure to a known carcinogen (§3212.1), and PTSD (§3212.15). The employer must disprove causation, the presumptions extend past retirement for a service-measured period, and §4663(e) takes causation apportionment off the table for all of these except PTSD — no degenerative-condition discount.
The violent-act psych standard
Ordinary psychiatric claims must clear the §3208.3 predominant-cause gate — more than all other causes combined. But when the injury results from a violent act, the standard drops to substantial cause (35–40%) — a distinction that decides real police cases, from shootings to fatal collisions worked on scene. What a compensable psych claim pays, GAF by GAF, is on the stress-claim page.
The group-490 premium
The schedule assigns police officers, deputies, and most other peace officers to group 490 (probation officers are 390) — variant I for essentially every duty injury. Engine-computed at the 2026 maximum, age 37–41:
The duty-belt back claim is the signature police cumulative trauma — years of twenty extra pounds on the hips — and it has its own presumption: for city and county police, sheriff’s deputies, and CHP and UC peace officers with five years of full-time service who must wear a duty belt, §3213.2 presumes lower-back impairment industrial, and §4663(e) covers it too. CT dates run on §5412 clocks, not the last shift worked.
The retirement interplay
Serious police claims run the comp case and an industrial disability retirement in parallel, and the medical evidence feeds both. Audit the P&S report’s numbers before either settles — the decoder verifies any rating string against the schedule’s tables in seconds. The full money framework is in what comp pays. Estimates for informational use; not legal advice.