dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

Public opinion polls have been steady for the past two months about police violence and racial injustice. After Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on the street in Minneapolis, support for the Black Lives Matter movement surged dramatically and continues to be broadly embraced.

Those same polls show significantly less support for “Defund the Police.” Only the most devoted activists support that phrase and only pure anarchists claim that society can function without police officers to enforce laws and detain lawbreakers.

Most don’t want to see police departments disbanded completely. They believe social service workers and mental health professionals should be called first. Their training is better suited in many situations. A cop with a gun often makes those situations worse. Many people haven’t heard this explanation, because they stopped listening after those three words: “Defund the Police.”

I wonder if the movement could widen its appeal by adding a fourth word. “Defund the Police Union.” This would put the focus back on Chauvin and other police officers with anger management issues and the consequences they face. Time and again, police unions step in to protect its members from proper and appropriate discipline.

It’s not uncommon for police unions to require personnel files to be hidden or destroyed after an officer leaves the force. A bad cop can get hired in a new town because his disciplinary record often doesn’t follow him. Officers are often protected from internal discipline because their unions negotiate favorable arbitration terms.

Don’t be surprised if the officers who watched Chauvin kill Floyd are eventually reinstated to the Minneapolis police force. They may even receive back pay. This is not uncommon.

Unions negotiate salary, benefit and retirement packages for their members. This is as it should be. But police unions also negotiate working conditions, liability limits, disciplinary procedures, and termination protocols. These details remain hidden from the public until after agreement is reached and commitments are made.

This is what must change. If unions insist on negotiating such details for its members, remove the cloak of secrecy usually afforded personnel matters. Politicians and the public deserve 60 days to review those details and provide comments to the city, county or state negotiators. Only after a public comment period should any agreement be finalized.

If Oregon lawmakers address police violence during next week’s special session in Salem, they should take a closer look at SB1604. 

Here’s the official summary of the bill: “Restricts arbitration award from ordering disciplinary action that differs from disciplinary action imposed by law enforcement agency if arbitrator makes finding that misconduct occurred consistent with agency’s finding of misconduct, and disciplinary action imposed by agency is consistent with provisions of discipline guide or discipline matrix adopted by agency as result of collective bargaining and incorporated into agency’s disciplinary policies.”

A shorter summary might be this: “When the fix is in, the fix must stay in.” Outside authorities in many cases would be prevented from meting any discipline that differs from the terms negotiated (in secret) by police unions. This should outrage politicians, the public and good cops everywhere. Defund the Police Union.

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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a column each Friday for The Register-Guard and blogs at www.dksez.com.

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