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How Cities Lost Control of Police Discipline

How Cities Lost Control of Police Discipline
The 83-page contract between Columbus and its police union shows how arbitration works there, similar to many other cities. The arbitrator, usually a lawyer, is picked from a short list of names submitted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a government agency that tries to prevent labor disputes. The city and the union each strike a name until one remains. “Who do you end up with?” asked Daniel Oates, the former police chief in Miami Beach, Fla.; Aurora, Colo.; and Ann Arbor, Mich. “The guy who’s much more likely to have a middle-of-the-road decision in a termination. Police chiefs and city officials often try to negotiate discipline before imposing it, to find a compromise the union will support. Portland fired Sgt. Sergeant Lewis, who did not respond to requests for comment, had little prior discipline and no documented history of such remarks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/police-misconduct-discipline.html

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