Synonyms
Overview
Giving police officers a voice within police organizations raised vexing questions. In many nations, police officers were to “police by mutual consent” with the public but often did not experience mutual confidence between senior officers and the rank and file. They needed a satisfactory outlet for their grievances, an advocate to protect their interests, and input into their occupation. A union could hinder arbitrary power from above, but authorities worried that unions undermined the organization. However, officers without an authorized union worked at the mercy of superior authorities and were more prone to strike.
The earliest organizing efforts in nineteenth-century Europe, America, and Australia aimed not only at pay, pensions, and regular days off, but also at the “right to confer.” They insisted that officers had the right to be consulted by police authorities on policy and conditions...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Recommended Reading and References
Aggarwal Y (1988) Gujarat police strike. Econ Pol Wkly 23(32):1611–1612
Allen VL (1958) The National Union of Police and Prison Officers, 2nd series. Econ Hist Rev 11(1):133–143
Berry J, O’Connor G, Punch M, Wilson P (2008) Strange union: changing patterns of reform, representation, and unionization in policing. Police Pract Res 9(2):113–130
Finnane M (2002) When police unionise: the politics of law and order in Australia. Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney, Sydney
Finnane M (2008) No longer a ‘workingman’s paradise’? Australian police unions and political action in a changing industrial environment. Police Pract Res 9(2):131–143
Fleming J, Lafferty G (2001) Police unions, industrial strategies and political influence: some recent history. Int J Employ Stud 9(2):131–140
Furuhagen B (2012) The police as a municipal or a state agency? The Swedish police in a Scandinavian comparative perspective 1900–1965. Unpublished paper, European social science history conference, April 2012. Uppsala University, Sweden
Horton C (1995) Policing policy in France. Policy Studies Institute, London
International Council of Police Representative Associations. http://icpra.org
Joshi R (2000) Democratising the police: lessons from UK. Econ Pol Wkly 35(40):3589–3596
Juris HA, Feuille P (1973) Police unionism: power and impact in public-sector bargaining. Lexington Books, Toronto
Klein J (2002) Blue-collar job, blue-collar career: English policemen’s perplexing struggle for a voice in the early twentieth century. Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime Hist Soc 6(1):5–29
Levi M (1977) Bureaucratic insurgency: the case of police unions. Lexington Books, Lexington
Lewis WG (1989) Toward representative bureaucracy: blacks in city police organizations, 1975–1985. Public Adm Rev 49(3):257–268
Magenau JM, Hunt RG (1996) Police unions and the police role. Hum Relat 49(10):1315–1343
Marks M, Fleming J (2006) The untold story: the regulation of police labour rights and the quest for police democratisation. Police Pract Res 7(4):309–322
Marks M, Sklansky D (2008) Voices from below: unions and participatory arrangements in the police workplace. Police Pract Res 9(2):85–94
McGill D (1992) No right to strike: the history of the New Zealand police service organizations. Silver Owl Press, Wellington
Nasson B (1992) ‘Messing with coloured people’: the 1918 police strike in Cape Town, South Africa. J Afr Hist 33(2):301–319
Reiner R (1978) The blue-coated worker: a sociological study of police unionism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Russell F (1975) A city in terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston police strike. Beacon, Boston
Sklansky DA, Marks M (2008) The role of the rank and file in police reform. Polic & Soc 18(1):1–6
van der Wal R (2007) De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse politie: De vakorganisatie en het beroepsonderwijs. Boom, Amsterdam
Walker S (2008) The neglect of police unions: exploring one of the most important areas of American policing. Police Pract Res 9(2):95–112
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Klein, J. (2014). History of Police Unions. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_463
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_463
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law