Fraternal Order of Police aims to restore confidence in MPD

If there’s one thing the City of Maricopa deserves, it’s a police department that not only protects its citizens, but does so in a professional manner that inspires the confidence of taxpayers and police personnel alike. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case in the recent past, a time marked by accusations, allegations, incidents and conflict ginned up by the leadership of the City of Maricopa Police Association, or COMPA.

COMPA’s rampant negativity explains why a large number of officers defected from the group in 2010, choosing instead to join the City of Maricopa Fraternal Order of Police, or the FOP. Their behavior also explains why COMPA was decertified as the current police officers’ representative group by a majority vote of officers in November, and it explains why the FOP hopes to take over soon as the representative for the Maricopa Police force.

Our hope? To end the mudslinging and unprofessionalism that has marked the past few months, and to negotiate a successful Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between city government and our police officers. The completion of this MOU, which would formalize an agreement concerning pay, benefits and working conditions for city police officers, is one of the most important issues facing city leadership, law enforcement and taxpayers. COMPA’s failure to negotiate a police MOU has left dissension, dysfunction and a lawsuit in its wake, along with farfetched demands for the firing of sergeants, command staff, the chief, and city management. Their strategy in a nutshell? Either agree with us or be attacked.

Sowing discord has never been the way of the FOP, the nation’s largest law enforcement organization, with more than 325,000 members nationally and more than 6,500 members across the state of Arizona. The FOP has spent the better part of a century fighting for the rights of police officers while balancing the needs of the larger community and government leadership. In today’s economy, the FOP negotiates to reach a fair, equitable standard of living for officers, one that respects the needs of taxpayers as well.

The City of Maricopa FOP won’t be alone at the negotiating table once we win the upcoming representation election. We’ll have the benefit of resources provided by state and national FOP leadership, including a national labor specialist who has experience negotiating hundreds of police contracts. We’ll also conduct a member survey that takes into account officers’ thoughts on proposed pay, benefits and working conditions and compares our MOU proposal with comparable cities.

We hope this professional, less flailing approach to labor negotiations will lead to respectful relationships between police, the city and Maricopa residents. Just as the community deserves a police force that continues to do great work making neighborhoods safe, the officers who work in our city deserve the respect of and support of those they serve. Uncertainty, turmoil, intimidation – all the hallmarks of COMPA’s administration – serve no one, from city hall to the street, from police cruisers to neighbors’ front doors.

On behalf of the City of Maricopa Fraternal Order of Police, thank you for your support and encouragement as we move forward. We hope to create a new era of cooperation in the City of Maricopa, one marked not by negativity, distortions and grievances filed for political reasons, but by truth, integrity and aggressive, but fair representation.
 
From our family to yours and from all of the officers at the City of Maricopa Police Department, Happy Holidays and have a safe and wonderful season and New Year.

Justin Thornton, a City of Maricopa police officer since 2007, is the President of the City of Maricopa Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 78.

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