Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) is the largest police union representing police officers of the New York City Police Department. It represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers. The PBA was originally called the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. On January 14, 2019, it changed its name to the gender-neutral Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York. History As a benevolent or fraternal organization, the New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was founded in 1892. In 1901, it advocated for and received 8-hour workdays. In 1967, New York State passed the Taylor Law, which sets the rules for municipal union organization with regard to representation and bargaining. New York City set up the Office of Collective Bargaining for municipal union demands. Lindsay Administration The PBA was successful in its campaign to defeat Mayor John Lindsay's proposed Civilian Complaint Review Board in 1967. After a SBA (NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association) lawsuit which was expected to succeed failed, officers who had been expecting a favorable settlement began a wildcat strike. This unplanned police strike of 1971 was in violation of the Taylor Act which prohibits police from engaging in job actions. The PBA publicly disavowed the strike. In 1973, New York City began assigning female police officers to work street patrols. The association was opposed to the change, claiming women lacked the physical strength needed to back up male officers. Koch Administration In January 1978, Mayor Ed Koch prohibited city agencies from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Samuel DeMilia, then the president of the association, explained in an article in The New York Times that the order was "unworkable in the police department and can do more harm than good." Dinkins Administration In September 1992, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association organized a rally of thousands of police officers who blocked the Brooklyn Bridge to protest police oversight proposed by Mayor David Dinkins. Other uniformed officers jumped over police barricades to rush City Hall. Some were openly drinking, damaging cars, and physically attacking journalists from The New York Times on the scene. On-duty officers did little to control the riot. Giuliani Administration The PBA's relations with Mayor Rudy Giuliani (mayoralty, 1994–2001) were marked by years of labor disputes. In 1997, it led a campaign asking Giuliani not to attend the funerals of city officers killed on duty. The PBA urged members to resist the mayor's incentive pay initiative in 1998. Additionally, in a five-year contract, officers were subject to a two-year freeze on salaries before seeing salaries increased 13 percent during the last years of the Giuliani tenure. During November 2007, in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, PBA president Patrick Lynch criticized the relationship between Giuliani and the NYPD. He said that the union would not endorse Giuliani. He criticized the mayor on pay issues, saying, "The inability to keep veteran cops on the job or to recruit adequate numbers of new ones can be traced directly back to the Giuliani mayoralty." He added,