The Police Association Uses Arbitration to Protect Criminal officers
Police Chief William McManus does not have the power to effectively terminate bad police officers like Sheriff Javier Salazar does. The collective bargaining agreement that the San Antonio Police Officer’s Association has with the city of San Antonio prevents and circumvents the Chief’s authority. Through a set-up that the San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) calls “Arbitration” this allows the police association to by-pass the civilian advisory board and the legal system to have officers rehired after the police chief fires them. Police Chief McManus went on to say that, “Accountability is dissolved through arbitration.” Importantly, the chief specifically opposes Articles 28 and 29 which allows bad cops to remain on the force. Police Chief William McManus does not oppose collective bargaining, and neither do I, but like many (over 65%) of San Antonio residents, we are opposed to bad police officers endangering the public and good officers because it is almost impossible to fire them.
Articles 28 and 29 of the contract allows bad cops not to serve a suspension of “3 days or less” unless it is with loss of pay that an outside arbitrator decides. The “arbitrator” is compromised by the fact that the ability to subpoena witnesses is undermined because it can be opposed by a party. The hearing may be secret, and the outcome of the bad officer can be delayed so that the public may not find out about their ugly conduct to soften public scrutiny. The public is not so sure that the American Arbitration Association has clean hands as well. Forced arbitration creates a systemic bias in favor of the police association. Arbitration is the unfair method by which bad officers can be rehired and across the country. Police associations use it to protect racist police officers; cops that steal, lie, and commit criminal and immoral acts. The SAPOA uses a 180-day limitation for a case to go forward for a demotion or suspension, so that if that time frame passes a bad cop still gets to threaten San Antonio residents by remaining on the street. Additionally, before an interrogation an officer is given a 48-hour notice to prepare his “story” which allows plenty of time to invent one.
We have dozens of cases, where police have unlawfully shot, strangled, tasered people to death and have gotten away with it. The SAPOA contract is one of the worst in the country and the FBI should look at the internal workings of this agreement. The FIXSAPD.ORG organization is circulating a petition to remove local codes 174 and 143 that allows bad cops to remain on the force. San Antonio tax payers have had enough of this. We honor the good officers, but those that break the law should not be allowed to stay on the force.
There has been an increase in thugs and misguided people carrying Trump signs and “Back the Blue” posters using the false argument that peaceful protesters are against all police officers. This is a DAMN LIE! Thugs from racist groups, some connected to the Trump campaign, have spread this lie and so we ask; How many SAPD association members are members of hate filled racially oriented groups? Our police chief knows that his ability to fire bad cops is limited by an SAPOA contract that protects bad cops who beat their wives or feed dog feces to the homeless. This is why petitions are being collected to remove the power of the association to protect bad cops and slip and slide around the legal system. The SAPOA has made our streets unsafe.
