Yesterday, there was a “soft closure” of many PPSLA Verizon accounts and there will be more to come. This is in lieu of simply turning off all devices last month – something that we should have done under this type of account or risk a huge expense to the lodge. As we stated before, to avoid any interruption in service, simply let us know what you want to do:

1. Keep your benefit as is. For $35/month continue to be an FOP member by filling out an automatic check withdrawal form that we can email you.

2. Transition your benefit to AZCOPS. We will release your line and someone within AZCOPS will need to assume your line’s liability. If AZCOPS does not facilitate on their end, you WILL see a spike in your bill. Regardless, you may see a temporary increase during the transition. This is normal, and it depends upon what time in the billing cycle you make the switch.

FOP office staff has been instructed to release any member who has paid their bill in full and wants to leave.

We are trying to help you do whatever it is YOU want to do… transition your Verizon benefit to AZCOPS, or stay with the lodge. We are also not going to compromise our integrity in order to sway your decision. Cops should not lie – especially to each other.

The phone plan is exactly the same although some have been lead to believe that there are differences.

When PPSLA left FOP immediately after promising a 30 day heads up, we should have stopped all lines of service for liability reasons. But we were not going to make the individual member pay for the actions of their new leadership, and we wanted to offer a choice. The other option would be to release all lines of service, but there would have been an immediate negative impact on your bill. Also, the ability to upgrade would be diminished, again harming you for the way your leadership went about the changes. So, we tried to reach out to everyone to ask what they wanted to do. We are willing to release your lines, but unless AZCOPS picks them up immediately, your bill will spike. It goes without saying that after we release your lines, we have no control or ability to add you to the AZCOPS account.

We, here at the FOP, wish it was not this difficult. It didn’t have to be. We are working hard on our end to ensure the smoothest transition possible, but when members are lied to about what is going on, it is hard to manage the great deal of work that PPSLA created for everyone. When we try to work hard to get you what you want and hear that PPSLA told their members that they don’t have to do anything, our work becomes more frustrating. When PPSLAs strategy is to besmirch FOP office staff by name and providing untruthful accounts about the same people who seem to be the only ones working to fix things, it is demotivating. As things continue to break they will not be the result of anything that the FOP did. But past actions indicate that we will be to blame, nevertheless. We focus on solutions while others (who created the crisis) focus on the blame.