It’s time to study prevention and responses, because America has a big policing problem, one that’s getting bigger and more polarizing by the day.
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At the tail end of 2014, during “Black Men, Police Officers and a Post-Ferguson America,” an online town hall produced by Techbook Online and The Dr. Vibe Show, Mr. Greg Brinkley, a former correctional officer at Pennsylvania’s largest prison, attempted many times during the one-hour conversation to direct attention to the arbitration process, which is intended to give all officers due process, but has turned into a streamlined way for “bad cops” to get back on the force after being fired by the police commissioner.
Since that live broadcast, Mr. Brinkley, who worked many years in union leadership with Philadelphia’s 1199c, has bolstered his call for reform to the arbitration process, including making the arbitration process public and switching arbitrators around to different cities so that they don’t develop relationships with the officers they’re representing.
Mr. Brinkley’s strategy hasn’t found much traction yet with younger grassroots activists in the City, the majority of who are focusing their efforts directly towards the Philadelphia Police Department or City Hall.
The challenge Mr. Brinkley faces in terms of building public will towards reforming the arbitration process is not exclusive to Philadelphia, as Mr. Samuel Walker of the University of Nebraska at Omaha notes in his new research, “The Baltimore Police Union Contract and The Law Enforcement Officers’s Bill of Rights: Impediments to Accountability,” that “the role of police union contracts in impeding police accountability has been largely ignored in all of the protests and discussions that have consumed the nation since the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.”
At a recent Philadelphia mayoral forum branded #TransparencyNow, produced by Techbook Online and The Declaration, an online, alternative Philadelphia news source, the arbitration process and the issue of police contracts took center stage.
Mr. Jim Kenney, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia in November’s General Election, was awarded the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, but implied at the event it wouldn’t prevent him from saying no to Mr. John McNesby, the FOP President who said the recommendations from the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing was a “waste of paper.”
“I don’t agree with everything John McNesby says and does,” said Mr. Kenney, adding that he believes “corrupt cops should not only be fired, but indicted and jailed.”
One of the panelists at #TransparencyNow, Mrs. Tanya Brown-Dickerson, whose son, Mr. Brandon Tate-Brown was shot in the back of the head by a Philadelphia police officer on December 15th, 2014, pressed Mr. Kenney on reforms to the arbitration process, resulting in him acknowledging that changes to Act 1-11, which creates collective bargaining and arbitrations, need to be enacted.
Mr. Kenney suggested the best route for that would be to “have someone on the state legislature introduce changes to Act 1-11.”
A statewide lobbying effort, which is what Mr. Kenney was referring to, is exactly what Mr. Walker recommended after meticulously analyzing provisions in the Baltimore police union contract and the Maryland Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights that impede accountability.
Even Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Mr. Charles Ramsey, acknowledged during the first meeting of the Mayor’s Police Community Oversight Board that while he’s working to quickly implement the 91 recommendations from the Department of Justice and the 61 recommendations from the President’s Task Force, some of the changes will require negotiations with the unions.
Commissioner Ramsey has also expressed his frustrations about the arbitration process, but said he doesn’t see major reforms coming to that area anytime soon.
Mr. Kenney, who will more than likely be the next Mayor of Philadelphia and was already told to start picking his Administration, said more focus should be paid to preventing corrupt cops from joining the force.
And while that’s undeniably true, this is a time in history requiring both/and, meaning it’s time to study prevention and responses, because America has a big policing problem, one that’s getting bigger and more polarizing by the day.
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