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For my latest piece, I investigated police unions and the infuriating history of how they became so powerful. Here are some things I learned. Thread. https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/08/police-unions-minneapolis/
Police unionization is associated with an uptick in police violence. A forthcoming paper from the University of Victoria found that after officers unionized, there was a “substantial” increase in police killings of Black people. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/871298161
Another paper from the University of Chicago found that complaints of violent misconduct committed by Florida sheriff’s deputies jumped 40 percent after they won collective bargaining rights. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3095217
Researchers think officers feel emboldened to commit violence because they know their unions will protect them. Union contracts often require police departments to:
Unions also make it hard to fire officers who kill or injure people. This is true around the country, but I focused on a case in Minneapolis, decades before George Floyd was killed.
At a New Year’s Eve party at a bar in the 1990s, officer Mike Sauro handcuffed a student and kicked him repeatedly in the head with steel-toed boots. Later that night he beat a second student.
A court said Sauro used excessive force and awarded $700,000 to one of these victims. The police department fired him. But the union appealed to an independent arbitrator, who reinstated him as a cop.
He stayed on the force for ~2 more decades and was put in charge of the sex crimes unit, where women accused his team of failing to investigate some of their rape cases. In 2019, an internal review found 1,700 untested rape kits dating back to the 1990s. https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-discover-1-700-untested-rape-kits-spanning-30-years/564989082/
“I was dealing with animals,” he would later tell a reporter when asked about the people he’d beaten. “I mean, my dog is more human than them.” (He disputes the finding about the untested rape kits)
When cops overturn their firings, it can embolden them further. In 2009, Sauro wrote a letter to his colleagues outlining his philosophy on use of force. http://static.cbslocal.com/station/wcco/news/local/09_0921_MarkSauroPoliceEmail.pdf
Since George Floyd’s death and the protests that followed, the Minneapolis city council has said it will fight the police union. City officials like former Mayor Naftalin also went head to head against the union after the massive protests in 1967, and lost.
Cities don’t have to give these unions so much power, but they do. That could be because police unions donate so much to campaigns. Officers and their unions spent $47 million on federal campaign contributions + lobbying in recent election cycles https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/police-unions-spending-policy-reform-chicago-new-york-la
They also threaten sick-outs or go on massive PR campaigns against politicians who don’t support them. And their influence extends to Washington—see these anecdotes about Biden and Trump
In the wake of Floyd’s death, some politicians are severing ties with police unions. By early July, more than a dozen House Democrats signed a pledge to reject campaign contributions from the Fraternal Order of Police, including @AOC, @IlhanMN, @AyannaPressley and @RashidaTlaib
State legislatures could even eliminate police unions, since public sector unions are governed by state laws. But some experts worry this would threaten the bargaining rights of other public workers like teachers and nurses.
But reforming the police’s collective bargaining does not have to upend the rights of other workers. Lawmakers could limit the subjects that cops can bargain over—for example, allowing them to negotiate their pay and benefits, but not disciplinary procedures. DC recently did this
It may also be possible to defang cop unions by returning to the main demands of Black organizers: Defund and dismantle the police. Reducing the size of the force reduce the power of its union over city politicians.
“The police union is an entity that can be created,” says historian @facloungepop. “And anything that can be created can be uncreated.”
