Police unions are spending millions to avoid change
By: Ray Levy-Uyeda (Mic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, protesters around the country are demanding that cities defund police departments. In places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, legislators have heeded this call, but in other cities, police budgets have actually increased. A new analysis by The Guardian illustrates how police unions have lobbied elected officials for legal protections and budget increases for years, including during this time of national reckoning with the system of policing.
Police unions are uniquely powerful, as Rafi Schwartz explained for Mic, which makes them a daunting hurdle on the path to reform. They are able to lobby mayors, city council members, county commissioners, and members of police oversight boards to define their own terms of employment and standards of police practice. "In effect," Schwartz wrote, "what this means is that beyond simply negotiating basic employment protections and standards, as is the case for most other unions, police unions have successfully expanded their contracts to include a host of stipulations that complicate, and ultimately stymie, efforts at accountability for individual officers, and reform for a department as a whole."
All it costs the unions for this little perk is millions of dollars.
As The Guardian found in their analysis, the sizable "donations" from unions to those who propose legislation and dictate city budgets leads to protective rules and regulations for officers and increased department budgets. For instance, police unions have successfully lobbied for investigative and legislative guardrails that prevent officers from being subjected to misconduct claims submitted too late after an incident and allow officers to receive "information that civilians do not get prior to being interrogated."
In Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country with a police force of nearly 10,000 officers, The Guardian found that unions have spent nearly $65 million to influence political officials over the past decades. Nearly a third of that money came from the Los Angeles Police Protective League alone, which spent $21.6 million.
Specifically, The Guardian found, Los Angeles police unions gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to specific individuals who had significant power to determine the rules binding the city's law enforcement. For example, the chair of the committee on police reform got $751,000, and the public safety committee chair received $111,000 from union donations. Both individuals were instrumental in advancing legislation that made holding police accountable more difficult. The Los Angeles budget department chair was the recipient of a $25,000 donation around the time that he helped steward a 7% police budget increase, per The Guardian.
While police unions work hard to influence the local politicians who mainly oversee them, state-level unions additionally focus on policy. In California, the Peace Officers Research Association has spent $34 million in "recent decades" to lobby elected leaders and on ballot issues, The Guardian said, while in 2016, unions were responsible for a blocking a ban on the death penalty and in fact pushed through their own measure that hastened executions.
In general, police unions use their power and money to lobby for reforms that appease calls for change without addressing what many activists say are the underlying, fundamental issues with policing. Consider how police unions got on board with the use of body cameras, — a major reform proposal as the Black Lives Matter movement grew to prominence in 2014 — yet evidence shows that body camera use doesn't actually reduce crime. Officers either turn them off, or let the cameras roll while they kill people. And even when the killings are filmed, very few officers have faced in disciplinary action for killing Black and brown people.
It's not just local and state leaders who are influenced by police union money, either. The National Fraternal Order of Police has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in the past two decades lobbying members of Congress on police-friendly and police protective legislation, according to OpenSecrets. Another lobbying tracker, Maplight, found that unions have influenced campaigns in recent years to the tune of $47.3 million.
With the current national scrutiny on policing, it remains to be seen what the result of President Trump's executive order on policing will be, let alone the fate of the dueling legislation on Capitol Hill. Even if most Americans are in favor of some police reforms, if past is prologue, it looks as if police unions may be powerful enough to escape this moment.
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I didn't realize the police unions are so well funded, if they can spend tens of millions to lobby elected officials.
It would appear that the Democrats aren't too keen on any substantial improvement of standards and practices.
As the left continues to denigrate and criticize law enforcement, the less cooperation they are going to get from the cop on the street or the detectives in the precinct.
No one can blame the cops from sticking together because certain political factions have overreacted to some tragic use of force on suspects who were resisting arrest. Most people support the police for tough job they are called on to do. The emphasis should be on getting rid of the few bad cops instead of condemning them all.
In the past I have stuck up for some cops as I have met some decent ones.
The problem is exactly what you said, that the cops stick together.
This isn't a new thing and has been going on for a long time.
The problem is when they cover for the bad actors.
And, no matter what you say, killing someone even for resisting arrest should not be an option.
Wrong...if they are attacking you and going for your weapon, they most likely will lose the room temperature challenge.
And from what we have seen on several videos, that was not the case.
So I take it you are ok with the police unions spending over 40 mil to lobby for special protections.
What do they pay their union dues for? Why shouldn't they be able to lobby the same as any other union? Your beef should be with those they lobby.
My beef is with all of it. The police union that spends ungodly amounts of money on lobbying then police set up charities and have fund raisers for needs and the bought and paid for politicians.
It is a zero sum game for us, that all of these people are supposed to work for.
How do you feel about steel workers and coal miners doing the same thing?
Seems I have heard a lot of shit about unions on this forum
How about teachers unions? They spend a lot of money on politicians and then continue to push for more funding..
Do teachers unions make it harder or near impossible to prosecute for criminal behavior?
Unions give money to politicians in the hope that their selected politician will be elected to office and will "remember" them when it comes to making or tweaking laws.
My comment was a reply to you from 1.1.5 where you stated that "The police union that spends ungodly amounts of money on lobbying then police set up charities and have fund raisers for needs and the bought and paid for politicians."
Well teachers unions also spend ungodly amounts of money on lobbying politicians and then set up fund raisers and hit up the state & local governments for more money.
In regards to giving money to politicians in the hopes of being able to help craft laws for their benefit, a union is a union is a union....
And I still say, not all unions are created equal.
Though I will say, as someone mentioned below, the most powerful unions seem to be of the public sphere.
JFK wasn't a big fan of Leaders in the Labor Movement either.
I guess we found one union republicans will praise.
I never really liked any of the New and Improved? ones much.
How so?
Show me "Republicans" that defended Chauvins actions.
I'll wait ....
What the hell does that have to do with a union?
How do you think he was still there after double digit complaints for being abusive?
A culture that protects their own.
Yes and part of that culture is usually the Police union.
Do you really deny that?
What the article states, it is the union that creates the regulations that allow it to happen.
Lol, so what was your question again?
.
None of what you are saying has any relevance to whether or not republicans backed a single cop.
Which was your statement.
Sure it does.
You intimated that Reps would praise this union. They clearly didn't and wouldn't. Not when the union allowed people like Chauvin to remain on their force.
I would draw you a picture if i could but stick men are only going to confuse you more.
So you think all republicans are against police unions. Good to know.
Lol, your words not mine.
Next deflection please .....
The only deflection is your ability, or lack there of, to be able to make an actual comment about the topic.
The truth does agree with you .... again.
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The Mayor of Little Rock is trying to implement some changes. Two that I heard about this morning sound plausible and shouldn't cost a boat load of money.
He wants individual police to be assigned to an area or zone. This way the officer gets to know the neighborhood and the people..actually become a part of the community. The other one is to reduce their shifts from 12 hours to 10.
actually become a part of the community.
That's what most cops try to do. The biggest problem that still remains is that certain segments in society seem to be taught from infancy to hate law enforcement and challenge authority.
Those are actually good ideas. I think Perrie said they implemented a program like that in her area.
Our County has had a "home" program for Police Officers for years. They try to find actual homes for them to live in, in the area they patrol. Of course, there are some neighborhoods they wouldn't even consider trying to get officers to live in.
I used to play poker with some cops. they were a bunch of degenerate gamblers and johns that thought everyone that didn't wear blue were criminals. they were always bugging me for unregistered handguns that I used to get from estate sales. I traded a cheap.380 semi-auto for a fazed-out cop tazer that I used on a thumper 2 years ago. they got sick of me cleaning them out on saturday nights playing texas hold'em with fake tells, since they all thought they could tell who was lying to them with body language.
Back when I was in college, I worked in a pizza place where the town detective used to eat at a lot. I had been working there for a few years and he suddenly stopped showing up. Apparently he had been arrested for managing a prostitution ring with girls he hired from the campus.
years ago a person in my extended family married into a family of lawyers that would negotiate the local PD settlements when the wrong people accidentally got killed by cops. extremely lucrative business.
I bet it was. Did the union pay for the lawyers?
negative. their contracts were with the cities, since the accidents were all work related.
Said it before, I think Al Frankin is a twit, but he basically said this, and I agree. Perhaps unions have played a significant role in workplace safety, pay, etc. I'm not necessarily opposed to unions. I'm opposed to what is being complained of here. Too much power, and too little accountability.
And what many Union member don't seem to realize, is that in the long run that works against them. Most of their Union dues go into the pockets of the Union admin.
Or, the dues go to fund a cause you do not support. Worked in city government, for a while, as a non-union employee. The biggest complaint I heard from the union members was the forced membership and payment of dues.
Very true. I was a member of a Union when I first started working at San Diego Trolley, Inc. I also found that the Union did not really support the hourly women who worked there. Most of the members of the Union were men, who got serious representation on things like work conditions, wage increases and hours. With the women, who were mostly Data Entry Clerks, the representation was more or less a "Yeah, Yeah we hear ya," kind of response to our requests for wage increases and the same things as the men asked for. However, they really didn't push for the women's interests, and they always got the short end of the stick.
No matter how much we complained they simply ignored us. I was finally promoted to Administrative Assistant so I didn't have to mess with the Union any more. But, my time with them really opened my eyes.
Agree. I am not against unions, I think they played a significant role in wages, benefits, safety and even retirement.
This though I think has gone a step too far.
It's concerning. Especially when you are dealing with employees funded by tax payer dollars.