Police unions and police fatalities in the United States, 1990−2018

Abstract

As of 2018, thirty-one states granted collective bargaining rights to police officers that require local government management to recognize and collectively bargain in good faith with police unions. Although scholars have identified factors related to police fatalities, the influence of police unions has gone understudied. Research in other occupational areas shows that union strength is associated with fewer workplace injuries and fatalities. This research analyzes the influence of union strength and collective bargaining rights on police fatalities. Using state-level data from 1990 to 2018, a rare-event analysis of police fatalities indicates that states with strong public employee unions experience fewer accidental line-of-duty deaths of police officers. Further, this analysis shows that states which grant collective bargaining rights to police officers have fewer felonious line-of-duty deaths of police officers compared with those that do not grant police collective bargaining rights. This article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications and the role of collective bargaining in police safety.