From the archives: Primer on police-union politics and contracts

In 2017, Just Liberty's former Policy Coordinator, Sukyi McMahon, who now works for the Columbia University Justice Lab, created three, short videos based on Reasonably Suspicious podcast segments that constitute a primer for reformers on police-union politics and debates surrounding their labor contracts. Lately, I've received inquiries on the topic from folks in other cities looking at what Austin did this summer, so I thought it worthwhile to re-up this little-discussed background to the recent budget fights:

Related material: Interview with CLEAT's Ron DeLord; interview with DeLord, CLEAT's Chris Perkins and Chas Moore of the Austin Justice Coalition on Austin's 2018 union contract fight. Finally, here's Grits' analysis of the new leverage gained by reformers as a result of winning in 2018. Without that victory as a precursor, what happened in August would not have been possible.