Police Union Hires Top PR Firm
The union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles police officers—the Los Angeles Police Protective League—has hired a high-profile communications and public relations firm to spearhead a campaign aimed at persuading residents and elected officials that officers deserve pay raises. Polling the residents was the first order of business.
The move comes after months of stalled contract negotiations with city officials and as other city employees have agreed to contracts that provided no raises this year.
At a recent meeting, LAPPL officials introduced the new public relations team to union delegates, who were told that as a first step, the firm had polled about 1,000 Angelenos on their opinions about LAPD officers, their pay, and other related issues.
Craig Lally, the league’s newly elected president, and other officials declined to discuss the specific results of the poll. They strongly disagreed, however, with one delegate who wrote that the “result of the poll is that the public is not with us on our contract issues.”
Union officials said the poll found that people were generally split or undecided on the question of whether LAPD officers should receive pay raises as part of a new contract. When told, among other things, that LAPD officers were paid less than officers in surrounding departments and that officers were leaving for higher-paying jobs with other agencies, those polled were more sympathetic to the idea of a raise, union officials said.
“While we are still digesting the results of the poll, early findings show that residents overwhelmingly care about three things: increased violent crime, officer compensation, and recruitment and retention of our City’s officers,” they wrote. “Importantly, data showed that the majority of residents do not side with the City and we have a clear path to obtain favorable and equitable treatment.”