Nearly a year has passed since George Floyd’s death set off waves of demonstrations across the nation, including Chicago, prompting Illinois’ public leaders to pledge police reforms that both improve public safety and community relationships with law enforcement.
But what if none of those promised changes mattered? What if police union contracts could void whatever reforms state and city leaders craft to fix the problem?
That is exactly the case in Illinois.
No matter what Illinois has on the books when it comes to public safety, state law lets police union collective bargaining agreements trump all laws and codes.
The Illinois Public Labor Relations Act allows any reforms that run counter to the language in a police union’s contract to be overruled. It doesn’t matter whether state lawmakers now intend to protect citizens from police misconduct and to protect the vast majority of police officers who serve honorably from having their reputations tarnished by the conduct of a few. As long as a provision in the act, Section 15, remains a part of state statute, the union contract is granted the power to prevail over reforms.
So potential police reforms — such as laws making it easier to discipline or fire problematic officers — are reduced to feel-good words on paper if local police unions have provisions in their contracts stating something different. And many do.
The Chicago Police Department and its contract with the Fraternal Order of Police provides a case study.
Currently the FOP contract has authority to control which misconduct complaints against police officers are investigated. The contract limits investigations by prohibiting anonymous complaints and requiring signed statements, potentially intimidating people from filing.
Such provisions led to Chicago failing to investigate nearly half of police misconduct complaints, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The contract also allows an accused officer to review audio or video evidence prior to making a statement about an incident, threatening the integrity of that statement. And the city still has not agreed on a new contract with the FOP, leaving all these provisions in place through the foreseeable future.
This power over officer misconduct investigations exists in union contracts across the state.
In the other 10 largest municipalities in Illinois, contract provisions could inhibit investigations and discipline of police officers. Aurora, Naperville, Joliet, Rockford, Springfield, Elgin, Peoria, Champaign, Waukegan and Cicero’s union contracts all have provisions that subject officer discipline to a lengthy appeals process. That means discipline could be overruled by an unelected arbitrator. All these municipalities also allow destruction of some or all disciplinary records after a time.
Most of them restrict the timing of interrogations in ways that favor the accused officer, such as occurring at a “reasonable hour” or “reasonable time,” rather than right after the incident. Most also provide special information to accused officers before interrogations — a benefit not typically extended to a populace guaranteed a presumption of innocence.
Ultimately, legislation looking to make good on promises to improve policing and communities’ faith in their safety must start with Section 15 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act.
Until state law ranks ahead of police union contracts, the Illinois General Assembly can pass all the good intentions it wants, but nothing will change.
– Mailee Smith is director of labor policy and staff attorney for the Illinois Policy Institute.
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