HUTCHINSON, Kan. — One thing that has come out of the cry for defunding or reorganizing police departments is how it could affect future negotiations for contracts between cities and law enforcement.
“That is a very interesting dynamic that’s kind of occurred out of all of this,” Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper said. “We, of course, do have a contract between the FOP, the city and the police department. And those contracts do typically, for example, outline due process if I discipline an officer.”
Hooper was thrown into such a situation when he first arrived in Hutchinson because of an incident in which an officer was discovered driving impaired and was protected by fellow officers. Those officers were terminated and others disciplined because of that situation. Hooper says he would hope that, while officers need due process, he would have the support of the FOP if such a situation occurred.
“I would be adamantly opposed to any contract that would afford a bad police officer protection from being prosecuted or terminated,” Hooper stressed. “I think there’s a balance to be struck there.”
Hooper says police departments do face the possibility that an officer may do the wrong thing or lose their way, but he says one thing is for sure.
“There’s nobody that hates bad cops more than good cops. And I would like to think that if we had a bad cop here, I know my administration and myself would never stand behind them and I’d like to think that the FOP would not stand behind them either.”
Still, there are some issues that arise from new contracts that are affected by different-sized communities.
“I know those unions also get some pressure from the state and the bigger portion of the union to always defend the rights of the little guy . . . the rights of the officer,” Hooper said.
Hooper says that those who will negotiate the next contract for HPD will have to take all of those things under consideration.
“I do know, obviously, that the people individually here at the department that are bargaining for the rights of their officers. And I know their hearts and I know that they know right from wrong and would not stand behind a bad officer.”