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Most Americans would be stunned to read the details of a police union contract, and the impunity it grants to officers and departments.
You won't begin to fix policing until you restructure police union contracts that protect officers at the cost of accountability.
You won't begin to fix policing until you restructure police union contracts that protect officers at the cost of accountability.
Here are just a few things police contracts do that you may not know about:
1. Arbitration Clauses - In the rare case an officer gets a misconduct judgment and is fired form the force, they can appeal the decision to internal arbitrators. In many cases officers are rehired.
1. Arbitration Clauses - In the rare case an officer gets a misconduct judgment and is fired form the force, they can appeal the decision to internal arbitrators. In many cases officers are rehired.
2. Destroying Misconduct Records - Many police union contracts include clauses for the destruction of past misconduct records after a period of time, and a limit on what types of misconduct qualifies for a formal investigation. Which can then be overturned!
3. Perpetual Funding - Police union budgets can literally block cities from cutting policing budgets. In Muncie, IN, the police contract *legally mandates* the hiring of excess officers and bans cutting officer levels below a pre-arranged minimum.
4. Private Talks - Police unions have pressured many cities into cutting the public out of the negotiating process, leading to contracts negotiated secretly and passed without any public comment.
5. City Piggy Banks - Police union contracts often put the city general fund -- not police departments -- on the hook when courts render money judgments against corrupt or violent cops. YOU pay for the misconduct, not the department.
6. Police Above People - Unions across the country have pushed "Police Bill of Rights" laws that keep misconduct records secret, seal court decisions against police, and allow for reassignment to office duty for officers found guilty.
7. Special Treatment - California's police contract restricts how officers accused of misconduct can be interrogated. Specifically it bans "profanity" and "threats of punitive action," which are commonplace when police question civilian suspects.
8. Actively Hiding Misconduct - In Louisiana, union contracts mean an officer legally can't have a negative evaluation placed in his personnel file without first agreeing to and signing the evaluation, ensuring records remain officially spotless.
9. Investigating Themselves - In Minnesota, a strict police union contract bans the legislature from giving any Civilian Review Board authority to investigate or factfind around allegations of police misconduct. Only police are allowed to investigate police.
Police union contracts are so powerful and far-reaching that they are actively preventing the Department of Justice from holding bad officers and corrupt departments accountable. As intended. https://inthesetimes.com/features/police-killings-union-contracts.html
When candidates for local and state office ask for your vote, ask what they'll do to break the chokehold police unions have on our democratic process. Ask them if they'll make police accountable to the law. And hold them accountable.
Nope, unions have generally fought to keep their contracts out of the public eye. https://twitter.com/grizatlcp/status/1385370238389080065
Take some time to support this worthy effort from @deray: https://twitter.com/deray/status/1381874863359545344
