Report: Nearly 25% of Cops Fired for Misconduct Were Reinstated Because of Union-Mandated Appeals

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that since 2006, 451 of at least 1881 police officers fired for misconduct from departments across the country were reinstated after labor lawyers overruled police chief decisions, largely under the pretense of union-mandated appeals. Of the reinstated officers, one shot and killed an unarmed man, another was convicted for sexually abusing a woman in his patrol car, and another challenged a handcuff man to fight him for the chance to be released. Labor lawyers hired to review the firing process typically accepted the officer's underlying misconduct, according to the report, but frequently concluded that departments were too harsh by firing the officer in question, or didn't have enough evidence to justify the termination. “It’s demoralizing to the rank and file who really don’t want to have those kinds of people in their ranks,” said Charles H. Ramsey, former Philadelphia police commissioner and chief in the district. “It causes a tremendous amount of anxiety in the public. Our credibility is shot whenever these things happen.”