The nation’s biggest police union has rejected claims by Big Labor that it is too “incendiary” to be part of a police reform package.
Dismissing the claims, the Fraternal Order of Police said Tuesday that it has been deeply involved in reform talks with the White House and Capitol Hill and vowed to play a role in making the nation safer for everyone, including law enforcement.
“Recent media reports regarding an internal AFL-CIO document have been misconstrued as claims or insinuations that the Fraternal Order of Police is excluded or not involved in national discussions on police reform. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said the union that represents more than 356,000 members.
“With a long history of working with leaders on both sides of the aisle, the FOP is fully engaged in this critical effort and is in virtually daily contact with congressional negotiators, the White House, the Department of Justice, and other major law enforcement groups,” said the group.
The statement followed a CNN report that said the FOP was kept from an AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and Service Employees International Union reform plan that would require police to call for help if they see police abuse.
The report suggested that the other unions stiff-armed the FOP because “local FOP leaders’ ‘incendiary rhetoric’ made labor’s job more difficult over the last year.”
The report also seemed to suggest that FOP leaders are too supportive of police officers others see as trouble.
“We have made clear time and time again our willingness to engage with anyone interested in having fact-based discussions about how to improve policing in our country,” read the statement.
It also noted that what the other unions were working on was more of an internal document, not a larger union plan backed by all interested labor groups.
“The AFL-CIO, which again, produced an internal document for the use of their own members, would not have any way of knowing the extent to which the FOP is involved in this national discussion because they have not been and are not privy to these conversations,” said the FOP.
“The FOP will continue to work in a collaborative way with the administration, Congress, affected Cabinet agencies, and others to craft criminal justice reform legislation which will make this country a safer and fairer place for all its citizens, and for the law enforcement officers sworn to protect them,” it added.
