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Austin chief can't bypass officer for promotion who visited brothel on vacation

Police accountability in this state is seriously hindered by the state civil service code, which governs police discipline, promotions and other departmental employment practices for the 70 or so cities which have opted in (including all of the big ones except Dallas and El Paso). Nearly all jurisdictions governed by the civil service code opted in many decades ago - most of them in the '40s and '50s - but in the late '80s the state's large police unions achieved working control over that section of the law at the Legislature and added numerous problematic provisions like closing most disciplinary records (which are public records at non-civil service cities).To make matters worse, in recent years the police unions (they're officially "associations," I know, but let's call a spade a spade) have been pushing for "meet and confer" authority - which is essentially a version of collective bargaining - and forcing cities to "buy" their way out of bad civil service laws at the bargaining table with higher wages...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 19, 2009 (boomark / email).