Former Chicago FOP Prez Speaks Out
According to the Chicago Tribune, from the moment Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police started negotiating its first contract with City Hall 35 years ago, the union identified an issue that would prove key to its members: ensuring officers had robust protections when they were investigated for misconduct.
City Hall had its own focus: money.
“The city didn’t have a lot of money but they wanted to keep the police happy, so they’d tell us what we’d get,” John Dineen, the first president of the Chicago FOP, said. “So they’d give away a lot of working conditions things. It was always working conditions versus money.”