Today in “Un-Effing-Believable News,” another cop union is trying to derail a city’s move toward accountability and transparency. Cincinnati.com is reporting that the city’s Fraternal Order of Police doesn’t want its officers to wear body cameras unless they get compensated for doing so.
A lawyer for Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #69, Stephen Lazarus, sent the city a "cease and desist" letter, saying until pay for wearing the equipment has been decided, officers shouldn't wear them. He asked that the city cease the program by Wednesday at the latest, pending the bargaining process.
"Requiring employees to wear BWCs will change several aspects of their job and regularly assigned duties," Lazarus wrote in a letter dated Aug. 11. "The adoption of of new BWC policies will also have a significant impact on the employees' wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment. Accordingly such changes are mandatory subjects that must be bargained to impasse with the union before they are implemented."
The article notes that Cincinnati’s cops are not the only city with cops having a hissy fit over pay for wearing body cameras.
Last year The Denver Post reported Denver's largest police union filed a lawsuit saying the Denver body camera program was illegally developed because it ignored collective bargaining.
[Cincinnati’s] Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #69 President Dan Hils said it's simple: "You want us to wear something new, it needs to be collectively bargained. The responsibility should increase our compensation."
Can you say #Speechless, boys and girls?