About the "Fair Police Union Contracts" section of the comprehensive platform to end police violence, Campaign Zero

Today, we launch our in-depth analysis of police union contracts and statewide Law Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights. The Police Use of Force Project expands upon our initial recommendations in the "Fair Police Union Contracts" section of our comprehensive platform to end police violence, Campaign Zero.

Police union contracts and statewide Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights laws have created a system of protections for police officers that amount to an alternate justice system, creating significant legal and structural barriers to accountability, transparency, and fairness.

Our review is of the police union contracts of 81 of America’s 100 largest cities* and the police bill of rights in all 14 states with such legislation to identify the ways in which these policies make it more difficult to hold police accountable.

Click here to access the interactive police union contract website. This site allows you to explore the individual contract clauses and legal clauses that limit police accountability, transparency, and oversight.

Click here to access the police union contract analysis PDF report.

Part I of our report will detail our analysis, conducted in collaboration with legal scholars, lawyers, and activists from around the country. Our findings demonstrate that police officers have access to an alternate justice system that allows them to act with impunity, one that is at odds with justice and simply unacceptable.

Part II will present model contract language to equip citizens to directly influence the contract negotiation process with specific language to create a fairer police union contract.

If you are a lawyer, legal scholar, or activist and would like to assist us in the next phase of the police union contract project, please reply to this e-mail directly.

// DeRay, Netta, Brittany, & Sam
deray@thisisthemovement.org

P.S. MuckRock has been incredible partner in this project by creating a citizen-led platform that allowed us to FOIA the police use of force policies.

# of people the police killed in 2015: 1,209
# of people the police have killed to-date in 2016: 544
# of officers charged with a crime for killing someone in 2016: 5

I downloaded the summary report, which states “Police union contracts and statewide Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights laws have created a system of protections for police officers that amount to an alternate justice system, creating significant legal and structural barriers to accountability, transparency, and fairness”.

An alternate justice system (emphasis mine). I call it an injustice system.

It goes on to state, “Police unions across the country have used the collective bargaining process to circumvent basic tenets of accountability, transparency, and fairness. In short, as a result of these contracts police officers operate by a completely different set of rules”.

Many cities and states in the U.S. have police bills of “rights” that give police offers a lot more "rights" than ordinary citizens have – including limits to how long they can be interrogated, and access to information we don't have.

In other words, police have a lot more “rights”, i.e. privileges and protections, than are enjoyed by the people they have sworn to serve – and who pay their salaries. For those of you who are saying right now, “this is not news” - you are probably right. But this report documents it. Well worth a read.

I am appalled by this but, as always, I prefer to focus on solutions. Knowledge of the problem is important, but let's talk about solutions. With the necessary communication skills, we can begin to address these issues and redress this situation.

Replies

Zhana July 5, 2016 at 8:39am

I downloaded the summary report, which states “Police union contracts and statewide Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights laws have created a system of protections for police officers that amount to an alternate justice system, creating significant legal and structural barriers to accountability, transparency, and fairness”.

An alternate justice system (emphasis mine). I call it an injustice system.

It goes on to state, “Police unions across the country have used the collective bargaining process to circumvent basic tenets of accountability, transparency, and fairness. In short, as a result of these contracts police officers operate by a completely different set of rules”.

Many cities and states in the U.S. have police bills of “rights” that give police offers a lot more "rights" than ordinary citizens have – including limits to how long they can be interrogated, and access to information we don't have.

In other words, police have a lot more “rights”, i.e. privileges and protections, than are enjoyed by the people they have sworn to serve – and who pay their salaries. For those of you who are saying right now, “this is not news” - you are probably right. But this report documents it. Well worth a read.

I am appalled by this but, as always, I prefer to focus on solutions. Knowledge of the problem is important, but let's talk about solutions. With the necessary communication skills, we can begin to address these issues and redress this situation.

This reply was deleted.