task0778
Diamond Member
Talking about the Minneapolis City Council here, surely they know they have to have some kind of security, but what? Some 8 years ago, Camden NJ was not a good place to live. Consider:
Camden NJ has thrice been named the most dangerous city in America. Camden suffered not only from high crime but from poor policing under a rigid union contract. Jim Epstein described the situation in 2014:
Camden’s old city-run police force abused its power and abrogated its duties. It took Camden cops one hour on average to respond to 911 calls, or more than six times the national average. They didn’t show up for work 30 percent of the time, and an inordinate number of Camden police were working desk jobs. A union contract required the city to entice officers with extra pay to get them to accept crime-fighting shifts outside regular business hours. Last year, the city paid $3.5 million in damages to 88 citizens who saw their convictions overturned because of planted evidence, fabricated reports, and other forms of police misconduct.
In 2012, the murder rate in Camden was about five times that of neighboring Philadelphia—and about 18 times the murder rate in New York City.
In May of 2013, however, the entire police department was disbanded nullifying the union contract and an entirely new county police department was put into place.
Which leaves me with a question: first, can Minneapolis legally disband the MPD, thereby nullifying the police union contract? Surely there will be a court battle over that, unions do not go quietly into the night. Union-busting ain't legal, y'know? Camden, New Jersey did it in 2012, but I'm not too sure if the same thing can happen in 2020 in Minnesota. Would the Minnesota courts allow it? As large as Minneapolis is relative to Hinnepin County, I don't know that they can shift all the policing responsibilities onto the county. I imagine they'd have to contract out as much of the policing services to contractors and sub-contractors as they could. There are 2 good reason for doing that: 1) it's a lot cheaper to pay a contractor over a union cop, due to all the benefits, and 2) you fire a contractor just like that, no union to fight for him. The contractor could sue of course, but pretty much on his own dime.
It can be done, the military has been doing it for years, reducing the number of active duty people and hiring civilian contractors to do the same damn thing. I know that cuz I did it myself, walked out the door as an active duty USAF Chief and went back to work doing the same thing as a civvy, albeit not as a supervisor. You'd be surprised how much money you can save IF you can get rid of that damn union. By laying off the officers and rehiring them as county employees, Camden was able to slash officer pay and cut benefits roughly in half. In all, average per officer costs were trimmed from $182,168 to $99,605, according to county figures.
BUT - Minneapolis ain't Camden. In NJ, the state had to pony up a lot of money to get that new operation going and that wasn't anywhere near the amount of what Minneapolis would need. I highly doubt the federal gov't will help financially, unless maybe Biden or a democrat gets elected into the WH. I guess it's doable, but it sure as hell won't be easy or cheap. And frankly, the Dems do not have a good record managing big projects successfully.
Camden NJ has thrice been named the most dangerous city in America. Camden suffered not only from high crime but from poor policing under a rigid union contract. Jim Epstein described the situation in 2014:
Camden’s old city-run police force abused its power and abrogated its duties. It took Camden cops one hour on average to respond to 911 calls, or more than six times the national average. They didn’t show up for work 30 percent of the time, and an inordinate number of Camden police were working desk jobs. A union contract required the city to entice officers with extra pay to get them to accept crime-fighting shifts outside regular business hours. Last year, the city paid $3.5 million in damages to 88 citizens who saw their convictions overturned because of planted evidence, fabricated reports, and other forms of police misconduct.
In 2012, the murder rate in Camden was about five times that of neighboring Philadelphia—and about 18 times the murder rate in New York City.
In May of 2013, however, the entire police department was disbanded nullifying the union contract and an entirely new county police department was put into place.
Which leaves me with a question: first, can Minneapolis legally disband the MPD, thereby nullifying the police union contract? Surely there will be a court battle over that, unions do not go quietly into the night. Union-busting ain't legal, y'know? Camden, New Jersey did it in 2012, but I'm not too sure if the same thing can happen in 2020 in Minnesota. Would the Minnesota courts allow it? As large as Minneapolis is relative to Hinnepin County, I don't know that they can shift all the policing responsibilities onto the county. I imagine they'd have to contract out as much of the policing services to contractors and sub-contractors as they could. There are 2 good reason for doing that: 1) it's a lot cheaper to pay a contractor over a union cop, due to all the benefits, and 2) you fire a contractor just like that, no union to fight for him. The contractor could sue of course, but pretty much on his own dime.
It can be done, the military has been doing it for years, reducing the number of active duty people and hiring civilian contractors to do the same damn thing. I know that cuz I did it myself, walked out the door as an active duty USAF Chief and went back to work doing the same thing as a civvy, albeit not as a supervisor. You'd be surprised how much money you can save IF you can get rid of that damn union. By laying off the officers and rehiring them as county employees, Camden was able to slash officer pay and cut benefits roughly in half. In all, average per officer costs were trimmed from $182,168 to $99,605, according to county figures.
BUT - Minneapolis ain't Camden. In NJ, the state had to pony up a lot of money to get that new operation going and that wasn't anywhere near the amount of what Minneapolis would need. I highly doubt the federal gov't will help financially, unless maybe Biden or a democrat gets elected into the WH. I guess it's doable, but it sure as hell won't be easy or cheap. And frankly, the Dems do not have a good record managing big projects successfully.
