Union wants compassion for WA officer

A constable left paralysed by a mosquito-borne virus should be shown compassion by the West Australian Police, who are trying to sack him for being medically unfit, the union says.

Ryan Marron, 32, suffered paralysis and brain damage after he contracted Murray Valley encephalitis in 2011 while doing relief work at the Balgo police station in the Kimberley.

The WA government gave Mr Marron $400,000 in 2012 to help fund six-months of intense physiotherapy at a Chicago rehabilitation centre.

Mr Marron's family raised the remaining $400,000 that was required.

But the policeman is now facing the sack as WA Police plan to "medically retire" him.

WA Police Union vice-president Brandon Shortland said Mr Marron should be shown compassion to allow him to have an income while the government decides how to compensate him.

Mr Shortland said medically retiring an officer was not a dignifying process because Mr Marron would have to explain why he was not fit for duty.

"It certainly won't help his recovery, that's for sure," Mr Shortland told Fairfax radio on Thursday.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said police would continue to support Mr Marron until the government made up its mind about his ex-gratia payment.