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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2020
Contracts can stand in way of police accountability
By MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — A stipu-
lation in a Kentucky police
contract prohibited offi cials
from initially fi ring the offi -
cers involved in Breonna
Taylor’s death in Louisville.
The disciplinary history
of a Chicago police offi -
cer who fatally shot Laquan
McDonald had been deleted
under the department’s con-
tract, so offi cials didn’t
know about the offi cer’s
previous bad behavior.
A Seattle offi cer fi red for
arresting an elderly Black
man who used a golf club as
a cane got $100,000 in back
pay, thanks to the union con-
tract that said the investiga-
tion missed a deadline.
Collective
bargaining
agreements for offi cers pro-
vide protections that stand
in the way of accountabil-
ity, even when the federal
government is overseeing
an agency through a con-
sent decree, experts said.
The killing of George Floyd
by a Minneapolis offi cer
ignited protests and calls
for change, but experts say
police contracts threaten to
undermine those efforts.
Contracts designed to
ensure offi cers receive fair
wages and benefi ts have
spilled over into public
policy.
“We’re ignoring the pur-
pose of the bargaining rights
and we’re allowing them to
step outside of what they
were originally supposed
to cover,” said Ayesha Bell
Hardaway of the Case West-
ern University School of
Law.
“When (we) talk about
discipline, accountability and
use of force protocols, we
should not be talking about
collective bargaining rights
because those terms have no
business inside of the con-
tracts in the fi rst place.”
When contracts are writ-
ten in private negotiations,
that means little input from
communities.
“Without transparency
there can’t be any account-
ability,” she said.
James Pasco, exec-
utive director of the
351,000-member National
Fraternal Order of Police,
recently said the issue should
be better screening and more
training for recruits, not lim-
iting contracts.
“We don’t get to decide
who our members are,” he
said.
Stephen Rushin, a Loyola
University Chicago law
school professor, has stud-
ied police contracts nation-
ally and detailed their prob-
lems in an article published
in the Duke Law Journal.
“A substantial number
of these agreements limit
offi cer interrogations after
alleged misconduct, man-
date the destruction of disci-
plinary records, ban civilian
oversight, prevent anony-
mous civilian complaints,
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan looks on as Police Chief Carmen Best, right, speaks at a news conference at City Hall in Seattle earlier this month.
‘WHEN (WE) TALK ABOUT DISCIPLINE, ACCOUNTABILITY
AND USE OF FORCE PROTOCOLS, WE SHOULD NOT
BE TALKING ABOUT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS
BECAUSE THOSE TERMS HAVE NO BUSINESS INSIDE
OF THE CONTRACTS IN THE FIRST PLACE.’
Ayesha Bell Hardaway | Case Western University School of Law
indemnify offi cers in the
event of civil suits, and limit
the length of internal inves-
tigations,” he said.
Some
contracts
let
an offi cer see videos of
offenses before an offi cer is
interviewed, give an offi cer
a 48-hour delay before they
speak to internal affairs and
allows an offi cer to appeal
a punishment to arbitrators
who can overturn rulings, an
Associated Press investiga-
tion found.
“These examples bolster
the hypothesis that some
union contract provisions
may impede effective inves-
tigations of police miscon-
duct and shield problematic
offi cers from discipline,”
Rushin said.
The problem is more than
union overreach, he said.
“It’s an indictment of the
city for granting those con-
cessions. Police unions only
have the power that politi-
cians give them,” he said.
Seattle is an exam-
ple of how elected offi -
cials allowed police unions
to insert controversial mea-
sures during closed negotia-
tions, over the objections of
community groups.
“The Seattle story is a
microcosm of what’s hap-
pening elsewhere in the
country,” Rushin told The
Associated Press. “It high-
lights perfectly this con-
fl ict between major reform
efforts and the extent to
which labor protections can
make it hard to engage in
real change.”
In 2011, a federal judge
found that the Seattle Police
Department had engaged in
a pattern of excessive force.
The city entered into a set-
tlement agreement, or con-
sent decree, the following
year and passed an account-
ability measure for addi-
tional oversight.
About 70 law enforce-
ment agencies nationwide
have faced consent decrees,
according to the U.S. Justice
Department.
The police overhaul bill
in Congress includes a sec-
tion that would cut federal
funds for a law enforcement
agency that “enters into
or renews any contractual
arrangement, including a
collective bargaining agree-
ment with a labor organiza-
tion, that confl icts with any
terms or conditions con-
tained in a consent decree.”
By 2018, the judge in
Seattle said the depart-
ment was in compliance,
Should I keep the journals?
Note: This column fi rst nals from the times when he
appeared in 2018.
was not. They contain not
Dear Annie: I need some only comments about the
advice on what to do about diffi culties I went through
my daily journals. I
dealing with his
keep a daily journal
drinking but also
DEAR
and have for many
information about
ANNIE
years — including
the family’s nor-
during a time when
mal daily life —
my husband was an
for example, chil-
alcoholic. He’s been
dren’s sports games.
sober for 27 years.
I’d like to save my
(We are in our late
journals in case my
70s.)
grandchildren
or
In those journals, ANNIE LANE great-grandchildren
Creators
I wrote about the
would like to know,
Syndicate Inc.
times he got drunk
in the future, what
— of his stumbling
their grandmother’s
around in a drunken stu- or
great-grandmother’s
por, of his passing out in his life was like, but I wonder
lounger with our children about the wisdom of mak-
sitting in the room, of his ing it possible for them to
lying about going to Alco- read about their alcoholic
holics Anonymous meet- grandfather or great-grand-
ings and instead going to the father. Should I leave the
club and drinking for hours. journals unabridged, or
I wrote about all these times should I take only the good
and more, describing the excerpts from them to pre-
family’s
embarrassment serve my husband’s sober
and frustration and adding image? His grandchildren
my own angry comments.
only know him as a loving
Now that he’s been — sober man. I don’t know
so thankfully — sober all whether our children have
these years, I’m wondering ever enlightened their own
what to do about those jour- children about how their
grandfather used to be
before he stopped drinking.
I have a hunch they have
never said anything about
it.
So, what do I do? At my
age, I’m thinking that if I’m
going to change anything,
I’d better start doing it now.
— Deliberating Diarist
Dear Deliberating Dia-
rist: Your family’s strug-
gle with alcoholism is not
something you or your hus-
band should feel ashamed
of, and it might actually be
helpful for your grandchil-
dren and great-grandchil-
dren to be made aware of it
— when they’re old enough
— as they may be genet-
ically predisposed to the
disease themselves. Even if
they’re not at risk, they will
inevitably face some hard-
ships of their own. How
special it would be for them
to be able to look to the
pages of your journal and
remember their heritage of
perseverance, exasperat-
ing, challenging, fulfi lling,
maddening, awe-inspiring
— not always pretty but
ultimately still beautiful.
but warned that “if collec-
tive bargaining results in
changes to the accountabil-
ity ordinance that the court
deems to be inconsistent
with the consent decree,
than the city’s progress ...
will be imperiled.”
Seattle Mayor Jenny
Durkan said the city was a
national model for overhaul-
ing the police department.
But community members
felt duped after she nego-
tiated in private with the
union for a contract that vio-
lated the accountability mea-
sure and the consent decree.
One Seattle offi cer who
benefi ted from the union
contract in recent years was
Cynthia Whitlach. She had
arrested an elderly Black
man, claiming he swung his
golf club cane at her. Her
dashcam video showed he
had not.
After the charges were
dismissed, the man fi led
a federal lawsuit and
was awarded $325,000.
A jury found Whitlatch
had engaged in racial
discrimination.
Whitlatch was fi red but
the union fi led a grievance
claiming the investigation
was not completed in 180
days, as required by the con-
tract. The city awarded her
$100,000 in back pay.
Minor stipulations in
police contracts like the
180-day rule are common.
A stipulation in a Kentucky
police contract kept the offi -
cers involved in Taylor’s
death from immediately get-
ting fi red.
Under the Kentucky
police bill of rights and the
Louisville police contract,
an offi cer cannot be disci-
plined “without just cause,”
said Annale Taylor, the
city’s deputy general coun-
sel, who is not related to
Breonna Taylor.
In order to establish “just
cause,” a thorough inves-
tigation must be done, she
said. If offi cers are fi red
before that work is com-
plete, they could appeal, go
back to work and sue, she
said.