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Police unions active in reform efforts
Common demands for police reform include chipping away at long-established police protections: make complaints against officers open to the public, tighten and enforce use-of-force rules, and reform the disciplinary process.
Clemency Board urges reduced sentence for cop in 2010 killing
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency has recommended reducing the prison sentence of a former Phoenix police officer who killed a man in 2010 while responding to a domestic violence.
GOP lawmaker asks AG to probe legality of Phoenix police policy
Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office asking for an investigation into whether a Phoenix Police Department policy on the release of information about critical incidents conflicts with state law that protects an officer’s privacy.
Lawmakers, police chiefs clash over secrecy of officer names
Arizona lawmakers thought they were doing police a favor when they passed a measure that would keep secret for two months the name of any officer involved in an on-duty shooting.
Sen. Smith sponsors bill to keep names of officers secret
An Arizona senator has agreed to sponsor a bill that would keep the names of officers who fire their weapons a secret for 90 days after a shooting.
New plan to withhold names in police shootings could lead to further delays
Law enforcement unions are revising their proposal to temporarily withhold the names of officers involved in shootings, but the change could mean a longer wait than their initial 90-day proposal.
Arizona has more military gear than some small countires
Arizona state agencies have received enough military equipment from the Department of Defense’s program 1033 to outfit a small country, and have more armored vehicles and military helicopters than 20 of them.
PSPRS board urges Brewer to call special session
The board that oversees Arizona’s pension system for police, firefighter and other public safety employees voted to urge Gov. Jan Brewer to call a special session to fix funding problems in the state’s public employees’ pension system, though it declined to recommend the only concrete plan proposed so far.
Arizona bill would ban all union work on city dime
A legal battle between the city of Phoenix and the Goldwater Institute over police officers who get paid to conduct union work has spilled over into the Arizona Legislature.
One more reason to reform all government unions
Responding to a piece containing blatant falsehoods is often difficult – if you rebut each falsehood, you risk legitimizing nonsense. That’s the challenge posed by the opinion piece in the March 16 edition of the Arizona Capitol Times, “Law enforcement not the place for political ideology,” written by Jim Clure, a representative of the government union known as PLEA (Phoenix Law Enforce[...]
Law enforcement not the place for political ideology
Most people would agree that the world of law enforcement is not the place for strident political agendas. So when an ideological organization whose lobbying activities are being challenged by the secretary of state starts pushing for changes that affect front line police officers, the law enforcement community stands up and takes notice.
Anti-union bills expose lack of worker solidarity
While the slew of measures targeting public unions appeared to have re-energized organized labor in Arizona, it also exposed their inability to fully unite amid a sustained attack from foes. The discord over tactics was palpable on March 1, when hundreds of union members and their supporters protested at the state Capitol, but many public unions stayed away.
