Police Labor-Management Relations (Vol. I): Perspective and Practical Solutions for Implementing Change, Making Reforms, and Handling Crises for Managers and Union Leaders

• NCJ Number: 215874
• Author(s): Ronald G. DeLord; Jerry Sanders; Mark Alley; Jerry Hoover; Harold Hurtt; Philip D. Cameron; Michael D. Edwards; Jerry Dowling; Larry Hoover
• Date Published: October 2006
• Length: 204 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2001-CK-WX-K093
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Sale Source: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Policy/Procedure Handbook/Manual
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded October 10, 2006. See NCJ-215875 for Volume II.

Annotation

This report is offered as a training guide for police managers and police unions on implementing changes, making reforms, and handling crisis in their law enforcement agencies with principled and practical solutions in the areas of collective bargaining, grievance handling, arbitration, or bargaining impasse resolutions.

Abstract

According to this survey, police chiefs and union officials are not that far apart in their perceptions of the roles that labor and management play in the law enforcement profession. In their meetings, they confer on a number of specific issues, many of which are perceived similarly by both sides. However, they differ in their perceptions of their respective willingness to confer on citizen complaints, scheduling, communication channels, relations with political entities, and the response to racial profiling. Neither police chiefs nor union officials believed that labor and management working together would result in alienating unions from their membership. Despite the potential for animosity, a majority of executives on both sides describe their relationship with labor or management as cooperative and friendly. The most serious problem facing the police profession in the 21st century is how to implement change or reform in a law enforcement agency in the most cooperative manner with the least amount of disruption to operations of the agency. The basic goals of this report include: (1) survey of police unions and police management on the current state of labor and management relations in their agencies, emphasizing the implementation of change; (2) analyze the survey data to determine those aspects of the labor-management relationship that would seem to be the most cooperative; (3) create a model police labor-management process to implement change and reform the law enforcement agency in a cooperative manner; (4) develop an educational and training program for police union leaders and police management on how to implement change in a law enforcement agency; and (5) establish methods to encourage police unions and police management to work together to make the reduction of crime a part of their relationship and develop a shared vision of a safer community. Appendixes A-E