The Effect of Collective Bargaining Rights on Law Enforcement: Evidence from Florida

SSRN Search eLibrary ^

[JP1201]

Abstract Growing controversy surrounds the impact of labor unions on law enforcement behavior. Critics allege that unions impede organizational reform and insulate officers from discipline for misconduct. The only evidence of these effects, however, is anecdotal. We exploit a quasi-experiment in Florida to estimate the effects of collective bargaining rights on law enforcement misconduct and other outcomes of public concern. In 2003, the Florida Supreme Court’s Williams decision extended to county deputy sheriffs collective bargaining rights that municipal police officers had possessed for decades. We construct a comprehensive panel dataset of Florida law enforcement agencies starting in 1997, and employ a difference-in-difference approach that compares sheriffs’ offices and police departments before and after Williams. Our primary result is that collective bargaining rights lead to about a 27% increase in complaints of officer misconduct for the typical sheriff’s office. This result is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls. The time pattern of the estimated effect, along with an analysis using agency-specific trends, suggests that it is not attributable to preexisting trends. The estimated effect of Williams is not robustly significant for other potential outcomes of interest, however, including the racial and gender composition of agencies and training and educational requirements.

[JP1201]

Research shows "extra rights" given to police officers lead to more misconduct...

[ChuteTheMall]

Unions donate to democrats.
Urban police chiefs are more liberal than rural county sheriffs.

[USNBandit]

It isn’t just unions, it is the way government agencies (all levels) handle HR and disciplinary problems. I am in federal law enforcement, non-union, and the extreme measures it takes to remove employees is insane. You can remove for solid cause (accidental discharge at a desk while “playing” with his gun) and the guy gets reinstated years later with full back pay.

My perception of union protection is that they provide more extensive legal protection, where the average personally procured legal protection insurance covers $250k-$500k.

[usurper]

My perception of union protection is that they provide more extensive legal protection, where the average personally procured legal protection insurance covers $250k-$500k.

I don't know about that. If I knew I was in real trouble I would not want some AFGE union hack representing me. I would want my own real lawyer.