Public Policy
  Analysis, opinion & ideas from Steve Harry

Directory

About/Contact

Police unions stand in way of reform

June 8, 2020

 

Police unions are an obstacle to police reform. Our state legislature can easily remove that obstacle. From The Washington Post, June 3, 2020:

 
 

The purpose of policing is to promote public safety and uphold the rule of law so that individuals and communities can thrive. The purpose of police unions, however, is to win members better salaries and benefits and to protect their job security — specifically by pushing for safeguards against investigation, discipline and dismissal. These protections can make it difficult for police chiefs to manage their forces effectively and can allow a few bad officers to act with impunity, poisoning an entire organizational culture in the process.

 

 

From The Washington Post, June 7, 2020:

 
  “There are so many terms and conditions in the collective bargaining agreements that insulate police from accountability and transparency,” said Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California. “Can we know who the bad police are? Are there public records? A lot of times, that is squelched in collective bargaining.”  

 

From the New York Times, June 8, 2020:

 
  Over the past five years, as demands for reform have mounted in the aftermath of police violence in cities like Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and now Minneapolis, police unions have emerged as one of the most significant roadblocks to change. The greater the political pressure for reform, the more defiant the unions often are in resisting it — with few city officials, including liberal leaders, able to overcome their opposition.

They aggressively protect the rights of members accused of misconduct, often in arbitration hearings that they have battled to keep behind closed doors. And they have also been remarkably effective at fending off broader change, using their political clout and influence to derail efforts to increase accountability.

 

 

From the Business Insider, November 7, 2020:

 
  A report from the US Conference of Mayors this August said that police unions' political power has led to collective bargaining agreements that curtail independent investigations into alleged police abuse, purge or otherwise obscure disciplinary records, and resist attempts to better train officers in de-escalation tactics. Mayors are telling us flatly: We'd like to help, but the unions have contracts.   

 

There is no law at the national level that requires collective bargaining for police or any other government employees. In Michigan, collective bargaining was forced on local governments by the Public Employment Relations Act, Public Act 379 of 1965. It was made worse in 1969 by Public Act 312, which provides for binding arbitration for public safety workers when no collective bargaining agreement is reached.

 

Our legislature can put local governments back in control of their police departments simply by repealing the Public Employment Relations Act.

 

Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text me at 517-730-2638. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.

 

Previous stories