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Police unions have helped shield officers from accountability.

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  • Police unions have helped shield officers from accountability.

    Police unions have helped shield officers from accountability. Now they're facing unprecedented backlash

    Police unions have shielded their officers, experts say 03:54(CNN)One San Antonio police officer repeatedly used the n-word as he arrested a Black man for trespassing at a mall. Another told a man he could go free if he beat the officer in a fistfight. A third allegedly tried to give a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog feces. 

    All of them were fired by the police chief. And all of them were rehired after an arbitrator overturned their dismissals -- in a process laid out in the contract between the city and the powerful police union. 
    In more than four out of 10 of the cases in which arbitrators ruled on officer terminations over the last decade, those firings were overturned, according to data provided by the San Antonio police department.

    "We've seen too many cases where the arbitrator has overturned the chief's decision when it's as clear as day that that officer accused of misconduct should no longer be on the force," Ron Nirenberg, the city's mayor, told CNN. "It's egregious."

    San Antonio is hardly an exception: Around the country, police unions have played a decisive role in shaping department policies and shielding bad cops from accountability, experts say. Now, as protests over the police killing of George Floyd have refocused national attention on police misconduct, unions representing officers are facing a wave of new scrutiny and an unprecedented political backlash.

    More than 85% of police contracts in major cities around the country include language limiting oversight or discipline of officers, according to an analysis by Campaign Zero, a criminal justice reform advocacy group.

    A demonstrator holds her hands up while she kneels in front of police on June 1, 2020 in Anaheim, California, during a peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd.

    Often negotiated behind closed doors, contracts in some cases are approved by local politicians whose campaigns have been bankrolled by the same unions they're dealing with.

    And police unions have only grown in financial power in recent years: The total assets of 56 large city police unions jumped by almost a third between 2011 and 2017, according to a CNN analysis of IRS tax filing data. 

    In the wake of Floyd's death, however, the tide has started to turn, with some cities moving to reform their collective bargaining procedures and labor activists edging away from their police colleagues.
    Stephen Rushin, a Loyola University Chicago law professor who has studied police unions and contracts, said a national rethinking of the role of police unions could have a significant impact in holding more cops accountable. 

    "This moment feels different," he said. "This could be a really important inflection point."

    How union contracts block accountability

    In cities around the country, police officers are some of the most difficult government employees to fire thanks to favorable contract provisions negotiated by local unions. 
    Contracts block accountability in various ways: Some ban civilian oversight or require disciplinary records to be destroyed. Others put limits on internal investigations, give officers advance notice for interrogations or require the city to pay if officers are held liable for misconduct in court. 

    Rushin, who analyzed more than 650 police union contracts around the country, found in a 2019 paper that more than two thirds of the contracts forced police departments to go through an appeals process when they wanted to fire or discipline officers, placing the final decisions in the hands of arbitrators "selected, in part, by the local police union or the aggrieved officer." 
    That means that even if those cities approve tough new regulations about use of force, for example, it could be hard to jettison cops who don't follow the rules.

    Those disciplinary procedures are negotiated in the contract bargaining process at the same time as issues like salaries, wages and benefits for officers, Rushin said. 

    "Particularly in budget-strapped cities, when officials can't meet the financial demands of the union, the concession they're ultimately forced to make is on discipline," Rushin said. "They can bury the disciplinary measures in the contract, and the public may not understand what it means, even as the monetary savings make the headlines." 
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2
    There was quite a lot of pressure last year for change last June, too, and some of it was very pointed - calls for qualified immunity. But the moment passed. Until union negotiations with the cities are no longer closed door, nothing is likely to change.

    (edt: calls for an end to qualified immunity)
    Last edited by KingsGambit; 04-22-2021, 04:30 PM.
    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
      There was quite a lot of pressure last year for change last June, too, and some of it was very pointed - calls for qualified immunity. But the moment passed. Until union negotiations with the cities are no longer closed door, nothing is likely to change.

      (edt: calls for an end to qualified immunity)
      I think police unions are the key to so much of this. Public Sector unions are not as wonderful as people think Private Sector unions are.

      Public Sector unions protect the people we hire from us! Bad teachers can't be fired, bad cops can't be fired --- and the result is that policing and public education - for which WE PAY - suffer.
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
        Public Sector unions protect the people we hire from us!
        I worded that badly ---- we hire people to work for us, including police officers and teachers. When they behave badly, they need to be fired, but it's the unions who protect them from us.

        Until that changes, we can expect more bad teachers and bad cops. When they finally are forced out of one agency or school, they can show up at another and pick up where they left off.

        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          That jerk should eat that sandwich he made. Who does that???
          If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

            I worded that badly ---- we hire people to work for us, including police officers and teachers. When they behave badly, they need to be fired, but it's the unions who protect them from us.

            Until that changes, we can expect more bad teachers and bad cops. When they finally are forced out of one agency or school, they can show up at another and pick up where they left off.
            Should there be a national registry of disciplined and/or fired cops? How else to keep them from going to the next jurisdiction and getting a job there?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by kccd View Post
              Should there be a national registry of disciplined and/or fired cops? How else to keep them from going to the next jurisdiction and getting a job there?
              I don't like national registries, but there's gotta be a way to blacklist bad cops to prevent them from carrying their problems elsewhere.

              In a case like this, I think public safety may justify it. Then again, that may end up being the "job fair" for people wanting to hire mercenaries.

              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by kccd View Post

                Should there be a national registry of disciplined and/or fired cops? How else to keep them from going to the next jurisdiction and getting a job there?
                I mean... say what you will about them, but there's already Registries in the US and Canada for Sex Offenders. It doesn't have to be Public Information that any Jane or John Doe can look up, but at the very least it could be something that Police/Private Security can run names and ID through during a Background Check for a job where it could be a HUGE liability.

                ETA: And if we ditch- or at least curb the abuse of- Qualified Immunity, that means they'll likely have a criminal record should they step out of line big-time. Pretty sure that flushes the chance of getting rehired elsewhere down the tubes.
                Last edited by Chaotic Void; 04-22-2021, 09:15 PM.
                Have You Touched Grass Today? If Not, Please Do.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                  I don't like national registries, but there's gotta be a way to blacklist bad cops to prevent them from carrying their problems elsewhere.

                  In a case like this, I think public safety may justify it. Then again, that may end up being the "job fair" for people wanting to hire mercenaries.
                  In the education world, the term for bad teachers hopping from district to district is "passing the trash".
                  "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                    I think police unions are the key to so much of this. Public Sector unions are not as wonderful as people think Private Sector unions are.

                    Public Sector unions protect the people we hire from us! Bad teachers can't be fired, bad cops can't be fired --- and the result is that policing and public education - for which WE PAY - suffer.
                    I had such a love hate relationship with the union at the post office. Leadership did feel that they could violate rules with impunity; they only would stop if they started losing grievances. I only once ever filed a grievance - they forced me to leave the office before I was ready in the morning, and it won me $150. They never touched me again. But the union was so bad; they helped one guy get his job back after being caught with an open bottle of liquor in his mail truck. I got to the point where I was just directly taking any concerns I had to management with better results, but I was kind of the model employee by the end.

                    I don't have an easy solution for the simple fact though that managers often do not feel they have any reason to follow the rules as written, and there's not really any other easy recourse. We learned from the union drive in Alabama that Amazon makes a big deal about how you can just "come to management" if you have any concerns, such as not being allowed to use the restroom, but who would be naive to think that they can take on the biggest company in the world if a metrics obsessed boss isn't letting them use the restroom and that it's going to turn out well for them?
                    Last edited by KingsGambit; 04-22-2021, 09:35 PM.
                    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post

                      In the education world, the term for bad teachers hopping from district to district is "passing the trash".
                      Yeah, that actually happened when I was in High School in 2007/2008. According to a watchdog group, the local teacher union bounced one of their Associates to another school across the city after she got caught sharing risque photos with a student. She remained anonymous, of course.
                      Have You Touched Grass Today? If Not, Please Do.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Instead of a registry, the chief that fired the officer should be consulted by any new department that goes to hire the officer. Just check his references, like any other job. And put on the application "have you ever been charged with a crime, been disciplined for a violation or fired for cause? If so please explain:" and if you find out they lied fire them.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                          I don't like national registries, but there's gotta be a way to blacklist bad cops to prevent them from carrying their problems elsewhere.
                          In many cases, just like with bad teachers, they are simply allowed to resign and thereby move on to a new location and continue doing the same crap that got them in trouble in the first place.

                          Typically a prospective employer will call previous employers of a potential hire and ask if they would rehire that person in order to get some idea as to what sort of person they are considering. But that doesn't seem to be the case for government employees like teachers and police



                          I'm always still in trouble again

                          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post

                            In the education world, the term for bad teachers hopping from district to district is "passing the trash".
                            Interesting. And understandable.
                            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post

                              I had such a love hate relationship with the union at the post office. Leadership did feel that they could violate rules with impunity; they only would stop if they started losing grievances. I only once ever filed a grievance - they forced me to leave the office before I was ready in the morning, and it won me $150. They never touched me again. But the union was so bad; they helped one guy get his job back after being caught with an open bottle of liquor in his mail truck. I got to the point where I was just directly taking any concerns I had to management with better results, but I was kind of the model employee by the end.

                              I don't have an easy solution for the simple fact though that managers often do not feel they have any reason to follow the rules as written, and there's not really any other easy recourse. We learned from the union drive in Alabama that Amazon makes a big deal about how you can just "come to management" if you have any concerns, such as not being allowed to use the restroom, but who would be naive to think that they can take on the biggest company in the world if a metrics obsessed boss isn't letting them use the restroom and that it's going to turn out well for them?
                              My ONLY personal experience with unions was UAW 425 when I worked for Ford as a kid. It was crystal clear then that if you were black, you could pretty well get away with anything. That was in the early 70's. And we had two "skilled trades" people who were union reps who would walk around pretty much all day holding an orange - which they had hollowed out and filled with whiskey, but "management" never saw it. Even when the guy would be standing face to face and you could smell the alcohol.

                              The foreman would approach one of these black people and ask very politely to help out on the line, because "we're short handed today", and the guy would say, "tell you what, lemme catch a quick nap, then I'll see if I can help you out".

                              And when we went on strike, you got $410 a week "strike pay", and if we did not go on strike in a given year, they'd have a big end-of-year party with free booze. (and I don't drink)

                              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                              Comment

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