kane

The unions are a huge factor. A friend of mine is a cop and one of the guys he works with got caught falsifying a report. I don't know all the details, but basically the guy screwed up and tried to cover his ass by lying on the report. He got caught and got fired. The union sued and after almost a year and a half an arbitrator forced the department to take him back and pay him his back pay. The arbitrator said he was guilty, but that firing him was too harsh of a punishment. The DA has said they will not accept any case of his so now he can't do anything but answer the phones. If he sees something happening he has to call for other people to deal with it. He can't even give tickets because if they are challenged the court will toss them out immediately because of who he is.

It has taken the city more than a year now to figure out how to fire this guy without having to pay out a huge settlement when he sues and they still don't know if they are going to be able to. Ultimately the city is now in a situation where they have to choose their poison. Do they want to fire him and face a big lawsuit, or do they want to wait until something happens that he is involved in and end up facing a big lawsuit.