Berks County in Pennsylvania and Teamsters Local 429 were parties to a collective bargaining agreement, which covers Berks County Jail correctional officers and maintenance employees and expired on December 31, 2019. When negotiations over a successor agreement failed, the parties proceeded to bindi
Alex Geiger began working as a police officer in Exeter, California in 2014. In 2015, he began working as a canine handler under the supervision of Sergeant Brett Inglehart. The City purchased a Belgian Malinois named Neo, and provided Geiger with a kennel, a food dish, a special patrol car, and oth
Catherine Erdman worked as a firefighter in Janesville, Wisconsin since 2007. She applied for openings with the Madison Fire Department each year since 2006. Applicants were required to first pass a written test, which would qualify them for a physical test. Erdman failed the written test in 2006, 2
In 2017, Truesdell Corporation won a bid to perform bridge maintenance along I-95 in North Carolina. The contract between Truesdell and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) required Truesdell to have law enforcement officers direct traffic at the construction sites. Truesdell cont
Scott Kennedy was a correctional officer (CO) in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He also served in various positions in his union and was president from 2019 to 2023. Kennedy had an aggressive style as president and did not get along with Warden Kline or Director of Human Resources Alexis Bevan.
Victoria Perkins is a deputy sheriff in Panola County, Mississippi. In 2021 or 2022, Perkins was dispatched to a distress call from a citizen of the County who stated that her minor child was with an adult male and that he refused to return the child to her. Perkins arrived on the scene and instruct
Cook County in Illinois maintains a sprawling jail complex of 36 buildings over eight city blocks. The County employs many guards and support staff to maintain the jails. In 2023, three class action complaints were filed against the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and its officials, alleging wid
Christopher Nguyen was a rookie police officer in Baltimore, Maryland. On August 12, 2020, he responded to a report of two men fighting inside a gold sedan. When he arrived, he saw a man, Wayne Brown, lying face-down on the sidewalk near the sedan. He was bloody and unresponsive, so Nguyen called fo
Kodi Pollock worked as a correctional officer for the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) from 2016 until her termination in 2022. During her tenure she was assigned to housing unit H1-2R, which housed inmate Elijah Blanton until his release on August 29, 2020. Pollock supervised Blanton as h
The state of Wisconsin maintains a public sector collective bargaining law. The Wisconsin law is called the Municipal Employee Relations Act (MERA) and was historically interpreted to impose a duty to bargain over health insurance plans offered by municipalities to their employees. In 2011, the Wisc
William Ashford worked as an officer for the Detroit Police Department since 1995, and as a detective investigating sex crimes beginning in 2015. He found employment with the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-D) Police Department in 2017. In February 2019, a university student reported that a pr
Mark Golembiewski is a Detroit, Michigan police officer. He was assigned a 70-pound German Shepard K-9 police dog named Ben. In March 2020, Golembiewski took Ben to the vet for his annual checkup. Golembiewski was on duty, in full uniform, and muzzled Ben as he always did for vet visits. Nicholas L
Matthew Vann is a firefighter with the San Francisco Fire Department. On November 2, 2020, Vann responded to an emergency. A bus driver with the San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority drove a bus through the location of the active emergency. The bus went over a firehose, which became entangled
Chad Braden began working as a firefighter in Seminole County, Florida in 1993. In the early 2000s, he suffered from cardiac problems and began regular treatment with a cardiologist. In the fall of 2020, Braden had a regular appointment with his cardiologist, who cleared him to work without restric
An unnamed, female Michigan State Police trooper (Trooper A) was terminated after a string of incidents at an event sponsored by the Michigan State Police Troopers Association (MSPTA). At the event, Trooper A was intoxicated and allegedly “wedged her fingers into the anal crevice of a coworker whil
Sean Lavin was a Sergeant with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office in New Jersey (MCSO). On December 6, 2013, Lavin and other members of the Sheriff’s Office were assisting with security at an event at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton. Three women, two of whom were visibly intoxicated, were d
The Fraternal Order of Police, Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1 and the City of Pittsburgh are parties to a collective bargaining agreement which provides retiree healthcare for officers and their spouses. Healthcare coverage only terminates where the officer or their spouse has access to private medical cov
The City of Raleigh, North Carolina maintains two policies regarding standby duty. The first is Standard Procedure 300-7, which entitles all City employees to eight hours of pay per week while assigned to standby duty. Under 300-7, before being eligible for compensation, City police officers must re
Police officers in the City of Malden, Massachusetts sued their employer after the City deducted a 10% administrative fee from wages received from detail work between 2008 and 2021. During their off-duty hours, officers were permitted to provide additional public safety services for additional compe
Brandon Hanks is a black police officer with the City of Syracuse, New York. The Syracuse Police Department maintains a prestigious unit called the Gun Violence Taskforce (GVTF). Hanks applied for a temporary position with the GVTF in hopes that it would advance his career. After being nominated fo
With some regularity, employees who resign later file lawsuits claiming that their working conditions were so oppressive that their resignations should be considered as “constructive discharges” subjecting the employer to potential lability. As demonstrated by a lawsuit filed by Officer Timothy Hoff
In 2018, Florida voters amended the Florida Constitution to include a number of rights for crime victims. The general intent of the amendments, colloquially known as Marsy’s Law, was “to achieve justice, ensure a meaningful role throughout the criminal and juvenile justice systems for crime victims,
Schashuna Whyte was appointed as a New York State Trooper in October 2016. She learned that she was pregnant about one year later but was initially reluctant to notify her command staff due to what she perceived as the “cultural lack of respect shown to female employees.” She revealed her pregnancy
Marta Danylyk and David Hofer began dating in February 2012. At that time, Hofer served as a police officer for the City of New York. Danylyk and Hofer began living together in New York in November 2013. The couple moved to Texas together in January 2014, where Hofer began employment with the Euless
