New York City’s police department has come under criticism in recent days, with some city officials saying NYPD funding should be reduced. But many of the same New York City Council members parroting calls to “defund” the NYPD were just a year ago pushing Mayor Bill de Blasio to give city cops a big pay hike. It’s a reminder that New York’s elected officials, no matter how principled, routinely don’t want to say “no” to public-sector unions.

The New York City Council Progressive Caucus, a faction of members “who self-identify as aligned with progressive community issues,” is poised to endorse activist demands to reduce city spending on the police department.

“The only way forward I see,” caucus co-chairman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) tweeted Saturday night, “is #DefundNYPD.”

Most of the caucus’ 22 members—including Kallos—however struck a different tone last spring as the New York City Police Benevolent Association, the largest NYPD union, sought the council’s support for “market-rate pay.” The PBA’s contract expired in July 2017 (and remains unsettled), and the union asked councilmembers—including many it had helped elect—for support.

Forty-one of the council’s 51 members, including 15 progressive caucus members, signed one of multiple letters to Mayor de Blasio seeking “substantial wage increases” or the like for the PBA. Two caucus members—Andrew Cohen and Justin Brannan—went so far as to speak at a PBA rally in support of the pay raise.

“Don’t tell me you’re a union guy if you don’t support the cops in the PBA,” Brannan thundered.

Councilmembers may be talking tough about the NYPD, the PBA, and police accountability, but city and state officials have helped the PBA use public resources to build the influence that it has today. For one thing, the city collects dues for the union—at city expense—and wires it to the PBA. PBA officials—like other city union members—also get to perform union work on city time. The PBA gets special access to orientation to pressure new patrolmen to join, under measures pushed by Governor Cuomo in 2018 and again this year.

Of course, local and state lawmakers are reluctant to discuss the privileges conferred on police unions because those same privileges are conferred on other public employee organizations, especially teachers unions—and, unlike police unions, lawmakers remain scared of them.

Tags:

You may also like

Pols Craft More Handouts for Sinking Construction Unions

New York’s construction unions, facing a decades-long decline, are employing a time-honored tactic: getting state government to stop people from competing with them. Read More

Union Rallies Long Island Pols Against NYC Kids

New York’s statewide teachers union has been cashing in political chits as it seeks to block new charter schools from opening in New York City, asking the senators and assemblymembers Read More

Utility board turns into union tool

The idea that the PSC would artificially drive electricity costs higher to benefit a political constituency represents a new low. Read More

New Docs Raise Big Questions About NY’s Megafab Mega-Deal

The Hochul Administration published a pair of documents concerning the Micron Megafab deal that raise more questions than they answer. Read More

City union scandal isn’t NY’s first

One of New York City’s largest public-sector unions has been effectively taken over by its national parent after an audit revealed extensive financial mismanagement. It’s the latest example of misconduct made possible under New York’s public-sector collective bargaining rules that force the government to collect hundreds of millions of dollars annually without any safeguards on how the funds are spent.  Read More

Firefighter-rights bill torches local control

Two of Albany’s most-vetoed concepts are headed toward Governor Hochul’s desk, this time concealed as a “firefighter bill of rights.”  Read More

Still-Unreleased Union Deal Rains Cash on State Workers

The still-unreleased deal between the Hochul Administration and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), state government’s largest group of unionized workers, would award bonuses, backpay, and guaranteed raises the next three years, documents sent to union members show. Read More

Thanks to Unions, NYC’s School Reopening Deal Was Costly and Educationally Hazardous

New York City schools reopened this fall under terms dictated by the city's teacher and principal unions. Now, as city schools close -- once more at the unions' behest -- the city is left with thousands of extra teachers hi Read More