Phoenix Police Association will fight ruling
Battle exposes rift between parties over the controversial practice of the city paying the salaries of officers who work fulltime for the police association.
The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association will fight a court injunction that stops officers working for the Association from getting a salary that comes from the city coffers.
The announcement followed a ruling by Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper to uphold an earlier injunction barring “release time” while on duty. The judge said release time serves no obvious public purpose and police administrators had no control over how members of the labor group spend the time.
Cooper’s ruling was the latest action in a 2011 suit filed by Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank. The Institute argued that release time is a violation of the state Constitution’s Gift Clause, which requires that the public benefits from any public money the government spends.
Clint Bolick, Goldwater’s vice president for litigation, said the latest ruling was a step in getting rid of a practice that puts public resources into the hands of special interests. The city has seven associations, and all had release-time provisions. “We hope that this will be the beginning of the end for these practices,” he said.
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