LRIS on 01/10/2025

Police Chief’s Private Texts To Coworker Not Protected By First Amendment

Kate Adams was hired by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department in 1994, and by March 2020, she had worked her way up to Chief of Police for the City of Rancho Cordova in California. Her time in the position, however, was short-lived, as Adams was forced to resign the following year after allegat

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

No Speech Protections For False Statements

In 2015, the Internal Affairs Unit of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety in California opened an investigation into David Meinhardt, an officer who also happened to be the president of the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers’ Association. IA was following up on a complaint that Meinhardt was usi

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

Back Pay, Not Reinstatement, For LAPD Officer Dealt A Due Process Violation

Like many municipalities across the country, the City of Los Angeles declared an emergency in March 2020 in response to COVID-19. The following August, the City passed an ordinance that required all City employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, request an exemption, or be subject to “appropriate

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

City Council Had Authority To Fire Police Officer After High-Speed Chase

Gregory Moliere served as a police officer in the Buffalo Police Department in Texas. Despite department policy to the contrary, Moliere engaged in a high-speed chase while a civilian was riding along in his patrol vehicle. The chase resulted in an accident that damaged the patrol vehicle. Moliere r

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

Privacy Concerns Did Not Outweigh Union’s Need For Sanitized Misconduct Forms

American Federation of Government Employees Local 3584, representing a unit of correctional workers, made an information request to the Department of Justice’s Office of Internal Affairs on behalf of its members at FCI Dublin, a low-security federal prison in California. The Union believed that the

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

City Of Chicago Not Liable For COVID Death Of Officer

On March 9, 2020, the Governor of Illinois issued a Disaster Proclamation, and on March 13, the President declared a National Emergency related to COVID-19. The Proclamation declared that COVID-19 can lead to “serious, long-term complications in some cases.” According to the Centers for Disease Cont

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

Pension Benefits Properly Denied To Disabled Officer Who Refused Surgery

In March 2019, Aaron Shirley, a police sergeant for the Clarendon Hills Police Department in Illinois, was injured on duty while assisting paramedics in restraining a minor lying on a cot. While restraining the minor, Shirley felt a “pop” in his right shoulder and later experienced severe pain and d

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LRIS on 01/10/2025

Illinois County Had Legitimate Reason To Lay Off All Commanders At Once

In 2017, the Teamsters were conducting an organizing campaign among the commanders in the Cook County Department of Corrections, a subdivision of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office opposed the inclusion of commanders, who they viewed as managerial employees. In August of that yea

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Discrimination, Weingarten Allegations Must Allege Deprivations

Jasmine Johnson-Purnell is a Licensed Practical Nurse employed by the Washington State Department of Corrections at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton. She was part of a nonsupervisory unit represented by Teamsters Local 117. In January 2024, Johnson-Purnell was assigned new medication car

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Absolute Immunity For Philly DA Despite Biased Prosecution Of Police Officer

Ryan Pownall is a Philadelphia police officer who was terminated and criminally charged after fatally shooting David Jones following a dispute over Jones’ operation of a dirt bike. Terrance Freeman, who was riding in the back seat of Pownall’s police vehicle, witnessed the shooting. Jones was taken

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Civil Immunity Not Automatic For Officer Working Off-Duty Private Detail

In January 2019, the Nickerson Post, a banquet hall in Quincy, Massachusetts, hired Paul Keenan and Christopher Bulger to provide private police detail at a concert. Keenan was chief of the City’s police department, and Bulger was an officer in that department. That evening, the Nickerson Post was o

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

City Interest Arbitration Ordinance Restored Following 13-Year Legal Battle

Until 2011, Article V of the charter of the City of Palo Alto, California required binding interest arbitration for certain labor disputes with its public safety unions. Facing a budget crisis in 2010 and 2011, the City council proposed modifying Article V to require cheaper dispute resolution proc

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Grievance Board Erred In Upholding CO’s Use Of Force Termination

Troy Carter was a correctional officer and shift supervisor with the rank of lieutenant at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in West Virginia. Carter received a call from Major Larry Warden in May 2022 “informing him that he was being suspend

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Mayor Lawfully Terminated Officer For Chokehold

On June 30, 2020, Antavione Ferguson, then a lieutenant with the Montgomery Police Department in Alabama, approached a suspect that had been involved in a car chase. Ferguson had just observed the suspect ram his car twice into a car he was chasing. After the second collision, the suspect exited the

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Oregon County Sergeants Are Not Supervisory, Finds State Labor Board

In March 2024, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Employees’ Association filed a representation petition with the Oregon Employment Relations Board by card check, seeking to certify a new bargaining unit of “all sergeants employed by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Department.” The Deschutes County Sheri

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Provo Police Were Not Required To Use Their Own Policies To Investigate Officer

Nisha King was a sergeant with the Provo City Police Department in Utah. In July 2022, King and several other officers were assigned to retrieve flags from the Provo mayor’s old office and transport them to the new City building. As the assigned officers were moving the flags and flag stands, King p

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Officer’s DWI Arrest Not Exculpatory Evidence

A police officer in Manchester, New Hampshire, referred to here as John Doe, was arrested and charged with DWI in 2020 while off duty in New York. He resigned two weeks later, and the City notified the Attorney General’s Office that Doe should be placed on the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule (EES). Do

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LRIS on 12/13/2024

Court Upholds Arbitration Award Allowing COs To Refuse Mandatory Overtime

Correctional Officers Justin Drexler and Courtney Cornell are employees of the Alleghany County Jail (ACJ) in Pennsylvania. The CBA between the Allegheny County Prison Employees Independent Union (Union) and the County lays out a process by which COs may be required to fill staffing shortages, at th

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LRIS on 11/08/2024

City Manager Free To Reject Findings And Recommendations Of Arbitrator

Sergio Ramirez began his tenure as a police officer in the California City of Indio Police Department in 2005. In August 2016, Ramirez was charged with rape and two addi­tional counts of sexual assault of his 18-year-old niece. The City of Indio placed Ramirez on administrative leave, asked him to t

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LRIS on 11/08/2024

Arizona Supreme Court Invalidates Union Leave Benefit As Improper Gift

Although this case does not di­rectly involve a public safety union, it is a cautionary tale for public sector employers and the unions with whom they negotiate. AFSCME Local 2384 represents the unsworn personnel of the City of Phoenix, Arizona. The Local 2384 represents workers across several units

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