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This article appears in the March 2023 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Timothy Matthews began training with the Tucson Police Department in August 2000 after passing the necessary pre-employment physical and psychological examinations. In 2009 while off duty, Matthews passed by an accident involving a car that hit a police officer…
This article appears in the February 2023 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News, and is a follow-up to the June 2022 article Qualified Immunity Shields Employer From Liability For Illegal Dropbox Search (for subscribers only). Steven Bowers was a detective sergeant for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin. In February 2017,…
This article appears in the January 2023 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Cincinnati residents may lodge police misconduct complaints with the City’s Citizen Complaint Authority. The Authority consists of a team of investigators, an executive director appointed by the city manager, and a seven-person board appointed by the mayor. In response…
This article appears in the December 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. John Scatchell was a police officer for the Village of Melrose Park in Illinois. In late 2017, he went on paid sick leave to recuperate from an injury to his neck, back, and arm he suffered while on duty,…
This article appears in the November 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. On January 11, 2017, Sergeant Armin White of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) met with his direct supervisor, Lieutenant Donald George, to discuss issues he was experiencing in the workplace. White reported directly to George, but he also…
This article appears in the October 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The Plain View Project (PVP) was started in 2016 by a group of Philadelphia attorneys who believed that what they identified as racist and religiously biased social media posts by law enforcement officers “could erode civilian trust and confidence…
This article appears in the September 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. It is hard to overstate the impact on public safety employee free speech rights produced by the 2006 decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos. In Garcetti, a deeply-divided Supreme Court overturned more than 40 years of public employee free speech…
This article appears in the July 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The Shelton Police Union and the City of Shelton, Connecticut are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. On March 10, 2020, Governor Ned Lamont proclaimed a COVID-19 state of emergency. Six days later, the Governor issued Executive Order No.…
This article appears in the June 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Many in the United States have seen a five-second clip from a video taken by a journalist of Buffalo police officers Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski (“the Officers”) pushing 75-year-old Martin A. Gugino to the ground during a protest…
This article appears in the May 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The City of Newark and the Newark Police Superior Officers’ Association (SOA) are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City experienced a dramatic reduction in revenue collections, including property, parking, and…
This article appears in the April 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Christopher Turiano is a 25-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department. Until recently, he served as a grenadier in the Department’s Tactical Response Unit (TRU). On August 22, 2017, the TRU, including Turiano, was assigned to oversee ground operations…
This article appears in the March 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Roxanne Mathai was a lieutenant with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas. Mathai maintained a Facebook page that had photos of her in her Sheriff’s Office uniform. On January 7, 2021, the Sheriff’s Office learned from Mathai’s Facebook…
This article appears in the February 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The State Police Association of Massachusetts is the exclusive bargaining unit for the approximately 1,800 members of the Department of State Police. On August 19, 2021, Massachusetts’ governor issued an executive order requiring that all employees of the executive…
This article appears in the January 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The rule in Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), is fairly straightforward. If a governmental employer compels one of its employees to answer questions or provide a written statement upon threat of possible job loss, then neither…
This article appears in the December 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Scott Specht works as a fire marshal for the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), where his primary responsibilities involved investigating the origins of fires. In that capacity, Specht investigated a fire in March 2018 that destroyed a five-story…
This article appears in the November 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Brandon Bates, an African American man, has held multiple positions in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania. Bates eventually reached, and currently maintains, the position of Captain. Throughout his employment, Paul Carbo, a white male, was his supervisor.…
This article appears in the October 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. In January 2015, the City of Chicago and Lodge #7 of the Fraternal Order of Police agreed to a letter of understanding that facilitated a pilot program for bodycams. In December 2016, the City announced an expedited expansion of…
This article appears in the September 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Many public employers are exploring or have implemented requirements that public safety employees provide proof of vaccination and, absent such proof, submit to periodic COVID-19 testing. Some employers are simply mandating that all employees be vaccinated. The result has…
This article appears in the August 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. On April 1, 2021, Houston Methodist Hospital announced a policy requiring all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 7, 2021. Jennifer Bridges and 116 fellow employees sued, raising a series of claims in attempting to overturn the…
This article appears in the July 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. The City of Chicago and Lodge #7 of the Fraternal Order of Police were parties to a collective bargaining agreement from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2017. By its terms, the CBA continued in force and effect past…
This article appears in the June 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Six civil rights actions were filed between October 2020 and March 2021 against the NYPD, the City of New York, and multiple individual NYPD officers. The lawsuits alleged that defendants engaged in – and continue to engage in –…
This article appears in the May 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Ibrahim Michael Baycora is Paterson, New Jersey Police Department’s Chief of Police. The City has bargaining agreements with the Paterson PBA Local 1 (PBA) and Paterson PBA Local 1 Superior Officers Association (SOA). Baycora attended the October 27, 2020…
This article appears in the April 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Parties to contracts such as labor agreements can choose to substitute arbitration for a court resolution of contractual disputes. With two notable exceptions, final and binding arbitration of grievances is just that: final and binding. As the Supreme Court…
This article appears in the March 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. By many accounts, the tenure of Benton County Sheriff Jerry Hatcher in Washington had been a tumultuous one. As described by the Washington Supreme Court, “During his short reign as sheriff, Hatcher created a culture of control that led…
This article appears in the February 2021 issue of our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News. Some public employers are adopting resolutions requiring collective bargaining to be conducted in public. Unions often push back on these resolutions, believing private collective bargaining to be more effective in the give-and-take process for resolving differences. Washington’s Public Employment…
