Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has vetoed a bill that would have banned police departments from setting quotas for traffic tickets. Though there have been reports of ticket quotas across the country, the same reports haven’t been coming out of Arizona, which Ducey mentions in his veto explanation. “While quotas for traffic complaints don’t currently appear […]
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Two current and one former prison employee who all belonged to the Ku Klux Klan planned to kill a black inmate as he was released in retaliation for a fight, state officials said Thursday. The three men — Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, David Elliot Moran, 47, and 42-year-old Charles Thomas Newcomb — […]
ST. LOUIS, MO – A man accused of launching a cyberattack that disabled a St. Louis County police union website had a gun in his car when he was arrested and had made several threats about shooting law enforcement officers, an FBI agent testified in court Thursday. The FBI arrested Justin E. Payne, 32, on […]
CLEVELAND, OH – Cleveland firefighters want bulletproof vests and they want them in time for the city to be in the spotlight, the Fox 8 I-Team has learned. The firefighters want the vests for when Cleveland hosts the 2016 Republican National Convention. “We will get a call that comes in shots fired, assailant status unknown,” […]
Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows employers to take advantage of longer overtime thresholds for public safety employees. Using a “work period” of between seven and 28 days, an employer need not pay law enforcement officers overtime until they work more than the equivalent of a 40-hour week; for firefighters, the […]
Scott Goff was a probationary police officer with Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. In February 2012, Goff received a phone call from the wife of another university police officer who said that her husband had threatened her with a gun. She asked Goff if he would help her select a gun for her self-defense. Sometime later, […]
In 2006, Suffolk County, New York police officers engaged in a high-speed pursuit of a DUI suspect. During the pursuit, the suspect crashed his vehicle into a house, killing William Calhoun. The Internal Affairs Bureau of the Suffolk County Police Department conducted an investigation into the incident. Brian Calhoun, as administrator of the Calhoun Estate, […]
Kenneth Fultz submitted a request to the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System for the names and home addresses of retired law enforcement officers or judges, the names and addresses of individuals residing with the retirees, and the names and addresses of the beneficiaries of non-law enforcement retirees who were over the age of 60. In […]
Frank Di Luzio began working as a firefighter/paramedic for the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1979. He remained with the Fire Department until 2000. During his 21-year career with the Department, Di Luzio served in a variety of roles, including shift commander, captain of emergency services, division chief, deputy fire chief, and fire […]
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority fired officers Mark Spencer and Sherman Benton. Spencer was terminated for excessive force and untruthfulness; Benton was fired for an off-duty domestic dispute and untruthfulness. The officers’ labor organization, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), challenged the terminations in arbitration. A Board of Arbitration overturned both discharges, finding that […]
John Woods was a fire lieutenant for the Berwyn, Illinois Fire Department. A series of disputes arose between Woods and other members of the Department, and eventually the Department terminated Woods. Local 506 of the International Association of Fire Fighters voted not to challenge the termination in arbitration. The collective bargaining agreement between the Department […]
LeRoy Hilde was a lieutenant in the Eveleth, Minnesota Police Department, and was age 51 and retirement-eligible. When the Chief retired in 2012, Hilde applied for the position and was one of four finalists for the job. The Police Commission’s protocol for hiring the Chief was to score three criteria: Weighted years of service, training […]
Connecticut is one of several states that break public safety negotiations impasses with a “tri-partite” arbitration panel. Typically, the employer and union each appoint one member of the panel, and those two appointees select the third member of the panel. The “neutral” panel member is typically an experienced arbitrator, and the panel’s decision is arrived […]
The City of New Britain, Connecticut and the New Britain Firefighters Association, Local 922 of the IAFF are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. Section 5.4 of the CBA contains a minimum staffing clause. Believing the City had violated the clause, Local 922 submitted a grievance to arbitration. At the outset of the arbitration hearing, […]
Responding to problems with underfunding of pension systems, the California Legislature passed the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act. The Act, which was effective January 1, 2013, limited the defined benefit formulas available to new members of public safety retirement plans. There are various options available under the Act, but the maximum benefit possible is […]
