One of the reasons it's so hard to rein in police unions is that even if you had the political votes to do it, a lot of traditional union-busting methods that devastate collective bargaining for most kinds of workers, simply don't work on police.
You can't just shut down precincts that unionize. Locals need police services.
Most cities ban police unions from striking, but it's virtually unenforceable. They just use sickouts instead.
Most cities ban police unions from striking, but it's virtually unenforceable. They just use sickouts instead.
Even the Supreme Court's Janus decision, that made all public-sector unions right to work, didn't make a dent in police unions — because unlike most unions, police unions give members critical services, like legal aid, that every officer considers worth the dues.
I honestly don't think union-busting is the answer anyway. Police are, after all, still workers, and have a right to bargain for fair wages and safe working conditions like any other kind of worker.
I don't have an easy answer for how to fix police unions, but I think the place to start is to overhaul the diversity of their leadership, which seems to be considerably more white and more right-wing than the communities their members patrol.
