(A) The Board of Trustees is hereby authorized and empowered to pay out of any funds in its Police Pension and Retirement System a service pension to any police officer eligible as hereinafter provided, 50% of the average final yearly compensation of any police officer.
(B) (1) In order for a police officer to be eligible for the service pension, he or she must have reached the age of 55 years, or more, and his or her service with the Police Department must have ceased.
(2) He or she must have served for a period of 20 years or more in some police department in the state of a standard equivalent to that of the Police Department of the city, five years of which service shall have been consecutive immediately preceding the end of the period in the city. He or she must have complied with any agreement as to contributions by him or her and other police officer to the funds of the Police Pension and Retirement System, provided for in this article. Any police officer meeting with all other requirements of this article, who has served 25 years in accordance with this article, may be retired at one-half of the final average compensation of the police officer without regard to age. Any police officer who serves over 25 years may be retired at one-half of the final average compensation of the police officer, plus 2% of each additional year in excess of 25 years, not to exceed in any event three-fourths of final average compensation of the police officer.
(C) Where a police officer has served for the necessary number of years and is otherwise eligible except as to being 55 years, or more of age, if he or she is discharge without cause or his or her office is abolished, he or she shall be eligible for pension. When a police officer reaches the age of 70 years, he or she must retire, unless at the request of the Chief of Police, the Board of Trustees grants him or her an extension of one year, which can be further extended for one-year periods only at the request of the Chief of Police.
(D) In the event of the death of any police officer who has been awarded a pension under the provisions of this article, his or her widow, child or children, shall be paid the pension so awarded, provided that the same shall cease as to the widow, when he or she shall marry, or as to the child or children when they become 18 years of age. The payments to be divided equally between the child or children and widow provided, however that in the event of the death of the widow of the police officer, the child or children under the age of 18 shall be entitled to receive the full benefits of the pension in equal proportions.
(E) In the event of the child or children dying or becoming 18 years of age, the widow shall receive the full amount of the pension. In order for a widow to receive the pension as in this article provided, he or she must have been the husband or wife of the police officer at the time of his or her retirement, and for at least three years.
(`90 Code, § 1-45)