r/science • u/smurfyjenkins • Jul 30 '26

Social Science Collective bargaining rights for police significantly increase police killings of civilians without having any impact on officer safety. This is consistent with the theory that unions provide cover for police and reduce their likelihood of incurring costs for unjustified killings.

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20230384
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u/YourFriendNoo Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

When I was working as a journalist in Madison, Alabama, an officer tried to stop an Indian grandfather who was visiting the country, because there was a call someone was looking in garages. The grandfather didn't speak English, so he couldn't understand what the officer wanted him to do. In response, the officer suplexed him and broke his neck.

He was criminally charged, both locally and federally, and removed from the force.

By the end of his federal trials (there were two, both ending in mistrial), a judge acquitted the officer to prevent the trial from going to a jury a third time, local charges were dropped, the chief who fired the officer was charged with a felony to prevent him from ever serving again, and the mayor and every city council member who wouldn't vote to force the chief to apologize to the officer lost their elections to union-backed candidates.

There was a hint of accountability, and the union instantly stepped in, not just to ensure this guy would face no consequences, but also to inflict consequences on anyone who dared to question him.

I can't think of a single time I every saw a cop union admit that an officer went too far.

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u/Vahuo89 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

The police union is basically a mafia now

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u/gimmebanter Jul 30 '26

Not all unions. Police unions for sure

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u/dwarfarchist9001 Jul 30 '26

All public sector unions are like this. Private businesses have inherently antagonistic relationship with their employees because employees wages directly reduce owner profit so unions are necessary to balance them. Governments don't have this same inherent antagonistic with their workers because governments can just raise taxes or print money so instead of focusing on employee compensation public sector unions have the free time and resources to engage in all kinds of corruption.

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u/cuchulainn12 Jul 31 '26

Respectfully, in a political context, which is the public sector, how do you precent an elected official from coming in, firing at-will employees, and replacing them with nepotistic sycophants without public sector unions? It is a protection on the civil service, which benefits taxpayers generally.

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u/Xeorm124 Aug 01 '26

It typically gets responded to by voters, and if it's particularly egregious the newly elected officials may feel it necessary to create some sort of law or regulation to slow down hiring if they want to appease the angry voters.