Given the recent events, it is clear that there needs to be more accountability for the police. Far too often, police officers are not held accountable for breaking the law, violating the rights of civilians, and for the structural racism that is impeded in our law enforcement. The reason why there are so few laws restricting police officers, holding them in accordance, and data and studies about police and policing is because police unions are the strongest unions in America.

Unlike most other unions, police unions are heavily supported by both major political parties and thus have huge political weight and clout. Police unions are responsible for preventing reform on training and policing from government officials and civilian oversight committees, and for creating legal slush funds for police officers in lawsuits.

There are hundreds of articles and accounts of police unions using their wealth and political clout to prevent real change that could prevent many of the acts of police brutality and violence that have gripped our nation for so long. It is clear that police unions are preventing reform from occurring, and it is time we take measures to weaken them.

The first step is to demand that The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the largest labor union in the USA, disaffiliate with police unions immediately. AFL-CIO is affiliated with the International Union of Police Associations (IUAP), which represents and protects more than 100,000 law enforcement officers in the United States. That means that AFL-CIO provides support, both financial and political, to police unions across our nation. AFL-CIO regularly disaffiliates with unions that do not support their political goal, and this would be no different. 

It is clear that the police are not on the same side as workers are. There needs to be serious reform on how police operate in this nation, and that reform will only come when police unions do not have a tight grip on the levels of accountability and change police go through. The answer is clear. Tell Richard Trumka and the rest of the AFL-CIO leadership that police unions have no place in labor justice.