A central concern with police unions is that collective bargaining and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights contribute to the detrimental effects on transparency and accountability. This can result in officers who engage in biased behavior, avoiding the consequences of their actions. Police chiefs complain that collective bargaining agreements prevent them from undertaking new innovations that would improve transparency. Only thirty-three scholarly publications on police unions were published between 1975 and 2008. Now however, public awareness is focused on the lack of accountability and transparency in policing, in part due to national media attention about the deaths of George Floyd and others.
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