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Collective Bargaining and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida

Author

Listed:
  • Dhammika Dharmapala
  • Richard H. McAdams
  • John Rappaport
Abstract
Growing controversy surrounds the impact of labor unions on law enforcement behavior. Critics argue that unions impede organizational reform and insulate officers from discipline for misconduct. Yet collective bargaining tends to increase wages, which could improve officer behavior. We provide quasi-experimental empirical evidence on the effects of collective bargaining rights on violent incidents of misconduct. Our empirical strategy exploits a 2003 Florida Supreme Court decision (Williams), which conferred collective bargaining rights on sheriffs’ deputies, resulting in a substantial increase in unionization among these officers. Using a Florida state administrative database of “moral character” violations reported by local agencies between 1996 and 2015, we implement a difference-in-difference approach in which police departments (which were unaffected by Williams) serve as a control group for sheriffs’ offices (SOs). Our estimates imply that collective bargaining rights led to a substantial increase in violent incidents of misconduct among SOs, relative to police departments. The effect of collective bargaining rights is concentrated among SOs that subsequently adopted collective bargaining agreements, and the timing of the adoption of these agreements is associated with increases in violent misconduct. There is also some evidence consistent with a “bargaining in the shadow” effect among SOs that did not unionize.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhammika Dharmapala & Richard H. McAdams & John Rappaport, 2019. "Collective Bargaining and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida," CESifo Working Paper Series 7718, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7718
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp7718.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Doerner, William M. & Doerner, William G., 2011. "Collective Bargaining and Job Benefits in Florida Municipal Police Agencies, 2000-2009," MPRA Paper 86548, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2012.
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    3. Doerner, William M. & Doerner, William G., 2009. "Collective Bargaining and Job Benefits: The Case of Florida Deputy Sheriffs," MPRA Paper 86546, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2010.
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    11. Kyle Rozema & Max Schanzenbach, 2019. "Good Cop, Bad Cop: Using Civilian Allegations to Predict Police Misconduct," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 225-268, May.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nicola Mastrorocco & Arianna Ornaghi, 2020. "Who Watches the Watchmen? Local News and Police Behavior in the United States," Trinity Economics Papers tep0720, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2020.
    2. Cunningham, Jamein & Feir, Donn. L. & Gillezeau, Rob, 2021. "Collective Bargaining Rights, Policing, and Civilian Deaths," IZA Discussion Papers 14208, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Rob Gillezeau & Drake T. Rushford & David N. Weaver, 2022. "Policing and Indigenous Civilian Deaths in Canada," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 210-239, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    collective bargaining rights; police unions; police misconduct; law enforcement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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