Police unionism & protectionism in the US: origins, correlates, and mechanisms

Thesis

In 2024, there were over 1,300 incidents of police violence, the highest number since data has been collected on police killings of civilians (Campaign Zero 2025). While police violence across the U.S. persists, there is significant variation in fatal violence applied by police agencies, an institution that plays a critical role in preserving racial authoritarianism in the U.S. While scholarship has identified a myriad of factors to consider when examining variation in police violence, one understudied institution is police unions. This dissertation develops a novel, scalable index of police protectionism, capturing the presence and type of officer protections embedded in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and Law Enforcement Officers’ Bills of Rights (LEOBORs). This is the first large-N tool designed to evaluate long-standing theoretical claims about how police protections contribute to violent outcomes. Using this index, I first examine what correlates with higher levels of police protections and find that racial segregation and violent crime are significant factors. I then illustrate how the index can be used to assess whether protections correlate with fatal police violence. Across the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, each additional protection category is associated with a 10% (9.9%) increase in police killings. These models are not causal but demonstrate the index’s analytic value and provide support for the theory that protections may facilitate police violence.

Finally, to understand the broader police union mechanisms that may contribute to police violence beyond protections found in CBAs and LEOBORs, I conduct a paired case study of unions in Chicago, IL, and Dallas, TX. While police protections may have a relationship with police violence outcomes, police union activities beyond protections, such as those in the political dimension (i.e., campaign contributions), are critical to our understanding of the role police unions play in preserving the institution which is necessary to achieve meaningful public safety reinvention.

Authors: Rad, AN

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-orx9zxyyy
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Police violence; American political development; Police unions
• Subjects: Criminology; Political sociology; Labor economics