From [HERE] Police unions and associations have spent over $48 million on state lobbying and contributed almost $71 million to state-level candidates and committees in the last decade alone, according to years of data tracked by OpenSecrets.

California politicians attracted more contributions from police unions and their affiliates than any other state since 2012 with $38.5 million. New York follows with $9.3 million over the same time period, while Texas was third at $3.1 million.

California, New York and Texas were also the top three states for police union lobbying spending in 2021, out of the 19 states with spending data tracked by OpenSecrets. These unions spent more than $2.4 million on state lobbying in California in 2021, over $1 million in New York and about $916,000 in Texas.

Police unions and associations have collectively contributed over $121 million to state political candidates since the 1990s as well, an OpenSecrets analysis found. Congressional campaigns have also received over $1.2 million dollars from more than 50 such unions and law enforcement PACs since the 1994 election cycle – benefiting more than 65% of current Congress members.

The most powerful and biggest spending police union in U.S. politics is the National Fraternal Order of Police, as OpenSecrets previously reported. As the nation’s largest and oldest police union, it represents over 364,000 members, and has spent over $2.3 million on federal lobbying in the last decade.

Lobbying on police accountability

Police unions are seen as one of the most significant and tenacious roadblocks to any substantial change in law enforcement policies and procedures at both the federal and state levels. 

According to Campaign Zero – a national platform of data-driven policies addressing police violence – the millions spent by these unions every year go a long way in blocking efforts to hold police accountable, as well as manipulate the system in favor of police officers committing illegal activities.

While protests and demonstrations erupted following the death of Breonna Taylor during a botched no-knock raid by Louisville police officers in March 2020, the local branch of the Fraternal Order of Police participated in secret negotiations for their contract. They used the opportunity to advocate for more protection of special police officers and subsequently, for preventing changes in how the Louisville police tackled public safety.

Three months after Taylor’s death, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer released a statement on social mediathat he did not have the power to legally fire police officers due to existing state law and collective bargaining agreements with police unions in place.

“Under the current system, they would be reinstated within weeks, with back pay and potentially damages,” Fischer wrote.

While the city of Louisville paid Taylor’s family $12 million to settle the lawsuit, only one of the officers faced charges for her death. In March this year, that officer charged with wanton endangerment was acquitted.

According to Daniel DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and professor of political science at the City University of New York, George Floyd’s death also put police unions under a microscope.

“A consensus quickly emerged, asserting that unions protect officers who behave poorly and impede reform that would improve policing,” he wrote for National Affairs.

A series of police killings over the course of a few years also led the American Civil Liberties Union to launch a campaign in June 2021 aimed at exposing the lobbying power of police unions.

While Jim Pasco, National Fraternal Order of Police executive director, said lobbying spending by police unions has an influence on law enforcement and governance, he said he is hopeful that it is in a positive way.

“Our goal is to improve public safety for all citizens and for the police,” Pasco told OpenSecrets. “How can that be construed as negative?”

But he considered it “absurd” when asked about whether there should be any possible changes to lobbying in terms of reducing their sway over legislation.

“As an American, there is a First Amendment right to lobby your government, and those rights should not be taken away from police officers,” he said.

State officeholders accepting police union funds

Political candidates are known to actively seek endorsements from police unions during their careers. This includes former President Donald Trump and a number of current state governors – including governors of the three states with highest lobbyist spending by police unions such as California and New York’s Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul as well as Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

This arrangement is one of the major reasons union lobbying wields power over big U.S. cities and state legislation. Not only does it help lawmakers establish their strong stance on law enforcement agendas, but in turn, unions also benefit from using campaign contributions to make powerful political allies on city, state and federal levels.

Current state officeholders received  $20.6 million in law enforcement contributions since 2012. Six such state officials have received more than $225,000, all Democrats from mostly California or New York.

State officeholders accepting police union funds

Political candidates are known to actively seek endorsements from police unions during their careers. This includes former President Donald Trump and a number of current state governors – including governors of the three states with highest lobbyist spending by police unions such as California and New York’s Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul as well as Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

This arrangement is one of the major reasons union lobbying wields power over big U.S. cities and state legislation. Not only does it help lawmakers establish their strong stance on law enforcement agendas, but in turn, unions also benefit from using campaign contributions to make powerful political allies on city, state and federal levels.

Current state officeholders received  $20.6 million in law enforcement contributions since 2012. Six such state officials have received more than $225,000, all Democrats from mostly California or New York.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D-N.Y.), who received more than $611,000, tops the list as the political candidate receiving the highest amount from police unions in the last decade. For contributions in the 2022 cycle only, DiNapoli tops the list again with more than $200,000, followed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) at $91,000 and Newsom of California at $73,000.

Texas has the second highest number of office holders, at 176, receiving contributions from police unions since 2012. This includes Abbott and members of both the state House and Senate. Pennsylvania is the only state that has more officeholders at 177, but received nearly $750,000 less than Texas in terms of total contributions.

While some states have more recipients than others, officeholders  in 44 out of 50 states accepted funds from police unions in the last decade. However, no such contributions data was found for Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota or the District of Columbia.

California had 120 state officials who accepted contributions from police unions, while New York had 168 such state officeholders, OpenSecrets found.

Police unions in Texas collectively contributed $1 million to Republicans and more than $775,000 to Democrats at the state level. In California, Democrats received $6.2 million and Republicans over $1.4 million from police unions, while in New York, Democrats received over $2.3 million versus Republicans with a little over $700,000. 

Such contributions mirror party control in the respective states, with police unions generally giving more to whichever party seems to have more power. Both New York and California are Democratic dominated state legislatures, while that of Texas is Republican.

Police protections in state laws

Although California is highly touted as one of the more progressive states in the nation, it was known to have some of the weakest police accountability laws in place until very recently. 

California was one of 19 states granting special protections to officers being investigated for misconduct, and also among those states with specific laws to make police misconduct levels confidential. 

Until the state legislature passed a bill in 2018, police personnel records in California remained confidential. Further expanding on that change, the legislature passed yet another law in 2021 that increased public access to additional records involving police use of excessive force and biased or racist behavior behind illegal searches.

But nearly half of all states still have laws that grant police officers special privileges and protections from being investigated for wrongdoing. 

Of the 46 states that allow police unions to collectively bargain, 84% have contracts with measures in place that pose significant barriers to reducing their protective privileges. That includes Texas.

Texas state law restricts or delays interrogations of police officers and gives officers access to information, disqualifies complaints against them and limits oversight of police.

New York currently does not have a police bill of rights, but existing law authorizes any policeman to use force based on the officer’s belief that the individual committed a crime.

Reducing sway

California, New York and Texas also have higher rates of violent crime than some of the other states over a period of 10 years, according to data compiled by the FBI.

Texas had the highest violent crime rate of 446 per 100,000 people in 2020, which is the latest data available. California and New York had 442 and 363, respectively.

But unlike the other two states, New York saw a visible decrease in violent crime rate over the last decade. It went from a rate of 394 in 2010 to 406 in 2012, which was the highest, before it started reducing gradually.

Abdul Nasser Rad, managing editor of research and data with Campaign Zero, told OpenSecrets that he does not consider there to be any direct causal relationship between crime rates and lobbyist spending in those states.

“There might be some sort of possible correlation because of conservative states and lack of spending into community conditions and investments,” Rad said, “But there aren't any studies that look at that, per se.” 

He added that the layers of American federalism are also designed in a way that a lot of police unions can garner their strength at the local level via public safety budgets. Therefore, according to Rad, one of the most immediate measures to reduce the sway police unions and associations currently hold is to shrink police budgets generally.

“Police union contracts take up most of the salary lines, which is the majority in most cases of police department budgets,” he said.

Rad also mentioned other possible measures to counter the power held by police unions, which include putting in place minority law enforcement unionism and other types of pluralistic representative unionism. 

“There isn’t, however, a one size fits all solution,” Rad said. “But it is most important to separate the ability of police unions over management and discipline generally. [MORE]