Police union

A police union is a trade union for police officers.

Police unions in Canada

The Canadian Police Association is a Canadian advocacy organization for police officers, with membership of over 60,000 police personnel serving in 160 police services across Canada.[1] There are 27 regional chapters at municipal, provincial, and federal levels.[2] These include the Toronto Police Association and the Vancouver Police Union.

Police unions in Germany

There are three police unions in German: the Trade Union of the Police (Gewerkschaft der Polizei), one of eight industrial affiliations of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB); the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft, affiliated with the German Civil Service Federation; and the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, which is exclusively for members of the Kriminalpolizei.

Police unions in Sweden

The Police Union (Swedish: Polisförbundet) is a trade union in Sweden. It has a membership of 18,500 (including police academy students), and is affiliated with the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, and EuroCOP. It also maintains contact with the Swedish branch of the International Police Association.

Police unions in the United States

Police are still highly unionized in the United States in the 21st Century, in contrast to the declining union membership of other professions in both the public and private sectors. The largest single police association is the national Fraternal Order of Police with some 330,000 members, although the FOP encompasses both union lodges and fraternal lodges.

The police labor movement is divided into two camps -- the independent police labor organizations and the police labor organizations affiliated with organized labor through the AFL-CIO or CtW. Approximately 80-85 percent of all police labor organizations would be classified as independent and have no affiliation with organized labor. There are no accurate reports on how many of the 800,000 sworn officers are members of a police union. The best estimate would be 75-80 percent; that would rank police officers with firefighters as having the highest unionization rates in the United States.[3]

In 2019, the overall public sector union membership rate was 33%, in contrast with 6% in the private sector. High union membership rates among law enforcement and other police officers significantly raise the average.[4]

The five cities in the U.S. with over 5,000 police officers[5] correspond with the five largest independent municipal labor unions by total membership: the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, Chicago Lodge #7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Philadelphia Lodge #5 of the FOP, and the Houston Police Officers' Union.

History of police unionization

In 1892, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) formed in New York City, originally as a fraternal organization.[6] Today it represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers.[7]

The American Federation of Labor chartered individual police unions in the early 1900s including in Cincinnati, Washington DC, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Fort Worth, and Boston.[8]

In 1915, the first chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police was formed in Pittsburgh. The FOP has remained open to any law enforcement members including management.[9] The Fraternal Order of Police is independent and not affiliated with any other unions.

In 1919, the AFL unsuccessfully tried to charter a national police union, in what became known as the Boston Police Strike.[10]

In 1935, the Wagner Act was passed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowing private sector employees to collectively bargain. It wasn't until later in the 1960s that many US states changed laws allowing public employees, including police, the right to collective bargaining.[6] By the 1970s police were unionized in every major US city.[11]

The longest continuously operating police union in the country is the Portland Police Association of Portland, Oregon, established in 1942.[12]

Police associations and organized labor

Of those few police unions with affiliations with organized labor, the largest is the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA), which chartered with the AFL–CIO in 1979. It has over 15,000 members.[13] Other union affiliates include the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which is part of National Association of Government Employees (SEIU).

Sometimes described as a "union", the National Association of Police Organizations is solely a lobbying organization.[9]

Amid calls to remove police from the labor movement in 2020, member affiliates of the west coast King County Labor Council brought two motions to reform and or kick out the Seattle Police Officer Guild[14], the largest police in the North-West. On June 8th, 2020 the Writers Guild of America, East called on the AFL-CIO to kick out the IUPA.[15][16]

Lobbying and activism

In addition to collective bargaining, police unions engage in political advocacy around "law and order", crime legislation and legal protections for individual officers.[17] Efforts by the Department of Justice to regulate policing through consent decree, civilian oversight, and prosecution of police misconduct have been stalled or forbidden by police union contracts.[18] In 2014, the Fraternal Order of Police lobbied unsuccessfully for the continuation of Pentagon's 1033 program after it was discontinued by president Obama.[19] Between 1994 and 2020, over 55 police unions donated $1 million to different federal election campaigns.[20]

See also

References
  1. "CPA Directory". CPA. nd. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  2. Pennell, Josh (February 6, 2014). "Legitimate fundraiser resembles phone scam". The Telegram. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  3. DeLord, Ron; York, Ron (1 January 2017). Law Enforcement, Police Unions, and the Future. Charles C Thomas, Publisher, Limited. p. 179. ISBN 9780398091491. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  4. "Union Members Summary". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  5. using FBI statistics dating from 2010: "Law Enforcement Officers Per Capita for Cities, Local Departments". Governing.com. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  6. "Laws enabling public-sector collective bargaining have not led to excessive public-sector pay". Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  7. Rosenberg, Eli; Goldman, J. David (2 August 2016). "An Addition to de Blasio's Morning Coffee and Workout: Protesting Police Officers". New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  8. Williams, Kristian. Our Enemies in Blue. p. 122. ISBN 9780896087712.
  9. Greene, Jack R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Police Science. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-97000-6.
  10. DeLord, Ron; York, Ron (2017-01-01). LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICE UNIONS, AND THE FUTURE: Educating Police Management and Unions About the Challenges Ahead. Charles C Thomas Publisher. ISBN 978-0-398-09149-1.
  11. Potter, Dr. Gary. "The History of Policing in US" (PDF). Eastern Kentucky University.
  12. Riski, Tess; Jacquiss, Nigel. "For Nearly 80 Years, the Portland Police Association Has Wielded Power in a Town That Doesn't Like Cops. That Power Is Now Under Siege". Willamette Week. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  13. Fernández Campbell, Alexia (5 June 2020). "As Protests Grow, Big Labor Sides with Police Unions". Public Integrity. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  14. Bradbury, Alexandra (2020-06-12). "Why a Local Labor Council Is Threatening to Expel the Seattle Police Guild". Labor Notes. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  15. Garza, Frida (2020-06-11). "'They don't belong': calls grow to oust police from US labor movement". Guardian News. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  16. Eidelson, Josh. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  17. Juris, Hervey A.; Feuille, Peter (1974). The Impact of Police Unions: Summary Report. U. S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice [U.S.GovernmentPrint.Office].
  18. Emmanuel, Adeshina. "How Union Contracts Shield Police Departments from DOJ Reforms". In These Times. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  19. Homan, Timothy R. (2020-06-13). "Police unions face lobbying fights at all levels of government". The Hill (newspaper). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  20. Haley, Grace; Karbal, Ian (2020-06-05). "Amid calls for police reform, new dataset shows where police money has flowed in Congress". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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