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As reported by nj.com, Ed Brannigan, the leader of the state’s second-largest police union, was elected national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police last Thursday. Brannigan knocked out the incumbent, David Hiller, of Michigan, by a vote of 1,577 to 1,365 at the union’s national conference in Salt Lake City. He will remain president of the state FOP.

As the number two officer for the largest law enforcement union in the country, he said his duties will include testifying before Congress and traveling from state to state to rally public workers as governments sidestep the collective bargaining process to cut into their pensions and health benefits. More than a dozen states including New Jersey took that route in an effort to close budget holes this year.

“All of a sudden we’re the bad guy. We weren’t the bad guy on 9/11,” Brannigan said. “It’s not our fault, it’s government mismanagement.”

During his two-year term, he said he will focus on bringing state and national unions together to present a united front across the country. New Jersey’s largest unions banded together to fight a bipartisan bill rolling back public workers’ benefits this year, but they were ultimately defeated.

Brannigan said unions face historically challenging times because of the political climate, and he’s preparing for a tough battle. “I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

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As reported by nj.com on February 7, 2011, Newark police have made nearly half as many arrests, issued fewer summonses and conducted fewer inquiries in the second half of 2010 than in the same period the previous year, a decline some law enforcement officials say was tied to hostile layoff negotiations.

A public and protracted fight between the administration of Mayor Cory Booker and union leaders over the layoffs of more than 160 officers severely damaged morale, likely leading to a precipitous drop in production, officials said. “Morale is definitely at an all-time low and I don’t know what it’s going to take to bring it back,” said Derrick Hatcher, president of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police. “Years ago, you used to love coming into work. Now some guys dread coming to work.”

Booker insists morale has not affected crime fighting, and said it is impossible to link arrest totals with crime rates. “Correlation is not causation,” Booker said. “You can cut the statistics any way you want, but the fact of the matter is there is so much evidence that shows arrest rates don’t necessarily correlate with crime.”

Between July and December of 2010, police made 7,577 arrests, according to records. Newark recorded 14,920 arrests during the same period in 2009 and 15,332 the year before. The public and often contentious talks between the administration and the police union coincided with steep declines in monthly arrests. The largest monthly dip, 42.8 percent, came in November, when layoff negotiations hit a fever pitch. The second largest monthly drop, nearly 20 percent, occurred in July, when Booker first said layoffs would be inevitable without union concessions.

In December, the month after the layoffs were imposed, police recorded just 837 arrests, the lowest monthly total in three years. There were 2,443 arrests in December 2009 and 2,167 in December 2008. Newark saw at 7 percent increase in crime last year and the department recorded 6,717 fewer arrests than in 2009.  

Informed of the arrest numbers, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said in a statement that he would “not tolerate any police officer in Essex County turning a blind-eye on people who should be arrested for criminal offenses.” In addition to fewer arrests, the number of summonses issued fell by 28 percent last year compared to 2009, and the number of field inquiries conducted, interactions between officers and citizens for a public safety purpose, fell 12 percent.

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In the case of Grasso v. Fraternal Order of Police, Glassboro Lodge No. 108, 33-2-1617, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, held that under the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-1 et.seq, the Defendants owed no duty to the Plaintiff to represent him in a dispute with the Borough of Glassboro due to his status of not being an "employee" as defined under the act.

Grasso initially filed suit against the Borough of Glassboro for their failure to reimburse him for Medicare Part B. premiums pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.  Some time during the suit Grasso called on the FOP for representation as the matter dealt with an issue related to the collective bargaining agreement.  The FOP declined representation of Grasso, and following his success in the underlying action against the Borough, Grasso then moved against the FOP for their failure to represent him.

The Appellate Panel affirmed the Trial Court's decision to grant Summary Judgment in favor of the FOP due to the fact that Grasso can not be considered an employee under the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-1 et.seq. 

This case is important to both collective bargaining units and retired Public Safety Officers alike as it clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of each party under the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-1 et.seq

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