SUMMARY - Police Unions, Lobbying, and Political Influence
A police union negotiates a contract that includes provisions making it difficult to discipline officers, that requires delays before officers can be questioned after shootings, that shields complaint records from public disclosure - and reformers who want accountability find that the collective agreement blocks what legislation might allow. A union president appears on television defending an officer who killed an unarmed person, the automatic defense of members overriding any consideration of whether what the member did was defensible.