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Such a great article on police unions. Thank you for exploring this issue!

I have been an elected board member for our police union for the past 5 years. I really enjoy representing officers on alleged misconduct matters but the political stuff and media aspect is really challenging. I’m glad we have a media savvy union president, a great elected board and advisors.

Here’s an example of the tough spot police unions are in. Our dept is short handed. Really short handed. Sometimes to dangerous levels for patrol officers. But if the union complains too much publicly (in the media) - the police department administration has the ability to change everyone’s schedules to cover shifts. Force people come in on their time off “to meet the needs of the dept”. This is something no one wants. To be forced to work 20-30 extra hours a week. So the union would be screwing the members if that were the result of a public outcry from us.

These are things I see behind the scenes - where without that experience, I wouldn’t even realize were considerations.

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