Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
Long-time advocates of police reform are pushing for a broader, tougher look at what they say is a big reason it’s so hard to get rid of bad cops:
Police unions.
The Manhattan Institute’s Daniel DiSalvo writes that these unions are not interested in making policing better or officers more attentive to community needs. Instead, they are concerned with job security, higher wages and bigger pensions. The result is a culture that protects bad apples from accountability:
In Baltimore and other cities, labor contracts allow — or even require — expunging officers’ records of past disciplinary actions or accusations of misconduct. In Cleveland, a Justice Department investigation into the police department was stymied because the union contract required the deletion of disciplinary records every two years. At their most benign, these policies deprive supervisors of accurate personnel files, making effective management — and organizational change — impossible. In more troubling circumstances, they allow cops who have violated the public trust to take police jobs in new cities without any record of their past infractions.
It’s not a new problem, and it’s also widespread. George Mason University’s Alex Tabarrock wrote:
In 50 cities and 13 states, for example, union contracts “restrict interrogations by limiting how long an officer can be interrogated, who can interrogate them, the types of questions that can be asked, and when an interrogation can take place.” In Virginia police officers have a right to at least a five-day delay before being interrogated. In Louisiana police officers have up to 30 days during which no questioning is allowed and they cannot be questioned for sustained periods of time or without breaks. In some cities, police officers can only be interrogated during work hours. Regular people do not get these privileges.
That last bit bears repeating: “Regular people do not get these privileges.”
Image Credit: By Jamelle Bouie [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
It`s about time the real problem is pointed out, the unions.
The UNIONS in every place they exist protect bad or mediocre employees. They are paid to protect and while most things the Unions promise are just that, PROMISES….they do make a big show of going against the employer in favor of the Union Member.
What is worse is that usually the Employers are in on this Scam….and as with the events where Politicians are involved, the Unions HEAVILY endorse and contribute to all things election connected.
The employers have to be in on it or they will lose their business
Just remember when the Police stand down it is up to the Citizens to take control of these Violent Rioters that threaten you Businesses and your homes. That is why in these days and times that it is very important that Citizens are armed because you have every right to protect your homes and your family’s as well as your communitys. You shoot first and ask questions later.
These rioters blame everyone except their selfs: Put them all in jail:
These rioters blame everyone except their selfs: Put them all in jail:
Well I guess that comment could go for all unions. After all unions are there to negotiate contracts. The question is who puts down the guidelines for police actions? The mayor, city council or a special oversight committee? Let’s find out who is responsible!!
The unions didn’t just make create those rules, they negotiated with City officials for these rules. Blame should be placed on the Politicians who agreed to accept such a contract.
The job of the union is to negotiate the best possible work situation for its members. The union doesn’t have the power to unilaterally state what those situations might be. They put forth their position and the employers put forth theirs. Conditions are negotiated from that point. If the police union has negotiated a deal then that means the municipality has deemed the terms acceptable. If there’s fault to be laid, it falls on both sides, not just the union.
The job of the union is to negotiate the best possible work situation for its members. The union doesn’t have the power to unilaterally state what those situations might be. They put forth their position and the employers put forth theirs. Conditions are negotiated from that point. If the police union has negotiated a deal then that means the municipality has deemed the terms acceptable. If there’s fault to be laid, it falls on both sides, not just the union.
The job of the union is to negotiate the best possible work situation for its members. The union doesn’t have the power to unilaterally state what those situations might be. They put forth their position and the employers put forth theirs. Conditions are negotiated from that point. If the police union has negotiated a deal then that means the municipality has deemed the terms acceptable. If there’s fault to be laid, it falls on both sides, not just the union.
I will say this much, regular people do not get any of the benefits that government types get period.
In the US Postal Service it is next to impossible to get rid of a poor manager or supervisor. In government, it is next to impossible to get rid of a poor performing employee. Unions do have their place, but when power gets out of balance, the man in the street pays the price. We have a lot of soul searching to do in order to apply the right solutions.
Just try to fire an incompetent teacher, is not going to happen.
Unions were once a good thing for the working man but no longer, for the last 25 years they have become nothing but harbors for slackers both in the union organizations and the membership, very few of them are controlled by Honest hard working officers and a vast majority of members seem to think they can get by with doing as little as possible for the compensation and cheat their employer in any manner of ways besides. And never have to pay the piper for their abhorrent thoughts or actions.
As a general rule when BurroRats commit a crime they are quick to blame the people they hate the most, Lib Rioters are not different, BLM want to turn US cities into new Baltimores, full of trash and graffiti, when someone is washing the graffiti “black lives matter” off the wall, blacks come to complain the cleaning people are RACISTS for erasing their worthless & stupid graffiti rioters left behind, Police officers have to deal with a lot of scum of the earth and go unappreciated; during the Memorial Day in Chicago they had 84 deaths, most committed by Blacks murdering blacks, obviously those BLACK LIVES DID NOT MATTER. 2 blacks and one illegal mexican murdered my Dad, we did not riot and the media did not care neither as my Dad was a WHITE MAN.
Open the chain gangs again and bring back sentences of hard labor and the chain and ball and Quit giving out all the parole and the easy jobs and hire guards and arm with good weapons, not 22 and 25 caliber,but weapons honest police officers use. Don’t treat them like babies, but like the criminals they are.
HMM Kinda like the teachers union???