Will Aitchison interviews Ron DeLord, the founder of Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT). In addition to being an attorney and experienced contract negotiator, Ron is a published author and respected historian of the law enforcement labor movement.TimestampTopic 0:00Introduction.
Terry Esser was a police officer with the City of Peoria, Illinois. In June and October 2013, Esser injured his back while at work. Esser eventually had surgery but was unable to return to work as a police officer.In September 2014, Esser filed an application with the pension board for line-of-duty
The County of Rockland in New York and the Superior Officers Council of the Sheriff’s Corrections Officers Association of Rockland County are parties to a collective bargaining agreement that requires the members of the Association to be paid a certain percentage more than the rate of pay of the cor
Brett Horvath was employed as a driver/pump operator by the City of Leander Fire Department in Texas. Horvath is an ordained Baptist minister and objects to vaccinations as a tenet of his religion. In 2014, two years after he was hired, the Department adopted an infection control plan that directed
Michael Lalley was a police sergeant in Newark, New Jersey. In early 2010, he was approached by agents of the FBI seeking his cooperation with an investigation of fellow members of the Department. Lalley declined to cooperate in the investigation. Unbeknownst to him, during the same time period the
David Meadows is a police officer with the City of North Bay Village in Florida. In January 2017, Meadows sat for the sergeant’s examination and placed second on the promotional list. The City uses a rule of three. Under the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the FOP, the police ch
In the fall of 2016, a consent election was held to determine whether the bargaining representative for Macomb County, Michigan Sheriff’s Department’s deputies and dispatchers should be changed. At the time, the employees were represented by the Police Officers Association of Michigan (POAM). During
Gregg Burns is a firefighter for the City of Las Vegas. Burns filed a workers’ compensation claim after suffering a heart attack in October 2013. When the City denied the claim, several levels of appeal occurred before the case wound up in the Nevada Court of Appeals.The key questions for the Court
Hosea Word is a sergeant and aspiring lieutenant in the Chicago Police Department. When he took the departmental lieutenants’ exam in 2006, he was ranked 150th of all candidates. The sergeants ranked 1 through 149 all received promotions. Sergeant Word was the highest-scoring candidate who did not.
The opening of the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion in a long-running lawsuit brought by two Travis County, Texas detectives is one of the best descriptions of FLSA litigation to find its way into a court opinion:“Whether a worker is entitled to the FLSA’s time-and-a-half requirement
Anthony Venable, who had been an officer with the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Police Department (MNPD) since 2007, engaged in a Facebook conversation regarding the shooting of Philando Castile in Minnesota. At the time, Venable was off-duty and the shooting had happened just the day b
Fire Chief Dan Kerrigan talks about how to minimize the risk factors to firefighter health and how they can achieve and maintain what he calls functional fitness. This interview focuses on firefighters but is applicable to all public safety employees and employers.Topics covered:New awareness of the
From New Jersey:Question: As a member of the FOP executive board, my deputy chief told me he is going to change a practice that involves our detectives. Although he did not identify specifics, he wants to rotate our detectives, a practice that we (the FOP) believe he cannot do. We believe our detect
Tom Jamison works for the East Lake Tarpon Special Fire Control District in Florida. Jamison filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the District alleging that Tom McQueen, an elected commissioner of the District, engaged in improper “direct labor negotiation discussions” via Facebook Messe
The 22 police officers in the Oakdale Police Department in California are represented by the Oakdale Police Officer’s Association. The Department’s officers wear body cameras.On March 26, 2018, a lieutenant approached Police Chief Scott Heller to discuss concerns over how certain video files were in
Derek Henderson is a detective for the Phoenix Police Department. His primary duties did not include acting as a first responder for welfare check calls, but department policy allowed him to do so if he was available and in the vicinity.On September 28, 2016, Henderson was working at his desk when h
The City of Newton, Massachusetts and the Newton Police Superior Officers Association Coalition of Police, Local 401 are parties to a collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014. In May 2014, the Parties began bargaining for a successor agreement but were unable to reach
Bryan Gipson worked for the Tawas Police Authority in Michigan for a few years when he was in a serious car accident. Gipson hurt his back so badly that he was unable to return to work for over six months. When he did return, he needed accommodations. After a few months of work, his doctor wrote not
Morris Johnson was a trooper with the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Johnson pulled over a woman for a DUI, arrested her, and asked her out. A month later, he saw the same woman on the road and pulled her over without probable cause so he could talk to her. He asked her out again, told her he lik
Darrell Hartwell worked as a firefighter/EMT for Naval Support Activity (NSA) Panama City for more than 16 years, until he was fired by Chief James Elston. For his entire career at the Department, Hartwell had trouble getting to work on time. The firefighters at NSA Panama City worked alternating 24
Meg Yatauro was employed by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) as a prison administrator and was assigned to the Wagner Youth Correctional Facility. Following a demotion, Yatauro sued DOC under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act, claiming she blew the whistle on certain i
Johnny Strickland is a sergeant with the Detroit Police Department. In the early morning hours of January 22, 2017, Officer Casey Schimeck and her partner, Officer Lawrence Ballinger, responded to a call at a gas station regarding a suspicious package. The package turned out to be a grenade on the g
Lamark Ferguson, who is African-American, is an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. Around midnight on the evening of August 18, 2014, while Ferguson was off-duty and returning home from a family function, he drove to a rental property in South Los Angeles that he owned and was renovatin
Prior to 2018, there was no one place where employees could find all the workplace policies and procedures utilized by the Snohomish County Corrections Bureau in Washington. There were two policy manuals dating from different eras, one from 2006-2007 and one from 2009. Each contained some policies a
