Nation's largest police union says it doesn't 'want to protect bad cops' as calls for reform mount

The president of the nation's largest police union said he was open to a plan for tracking officer misconduct as recommended in legislation proposed by congressional Democrats, but maintained that any agreement hinged on providing officers the right to defend themselves against potentially wrongful allegations.

"We don't want to protect bad cops," Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes told USA TODAY. "We all felt that there are a lot of areas that we could build on. Due process (for officers) is a very big point with us. ... We very much want to be at the table working at improving the criminal justice system."

But Yoes said that increasing calls for dramatic funding reductions or the dismantling of entire police agencies do not promote needed "order" in a nation still reeling from weekslong protests following the brutal death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who was pinned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

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"Picture a society that doesn't have the police," said Yoes, who took part in Monday's White House meeting on law enforcement reforms. "There needs to be order in our lives."

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Despite the troubling images of excessive police force from Minneapolis to Buffalo, where an elderly man was pushed to the ground last week and seriously injured by officers, Yoes defended American police as well prepared and "better trained" than at any other time in the country.

"We have never in the history of law enforcement had a better trained workforce than we have today," Yoes said.

The union chief rejected recent claims by community advocates and law enforcement analysts that collective bargaining agreements had made it increasingly difficult to discipline bad officers, ratcheting up tensions in some communities. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged with second degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death, had a long history of complaints from the public before his deadly encounter with Floyd.

Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said a proposed officer discipline registry represented an "important reform."

"Far too often, an officer moves from Department to Department and their history does not follow them," said Smith, who also served as special litigation chief in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. But Smith said it was a "red herring" for the FOP to condition the creation of a registry on provisions for officer defense.

"In every jurisdiction, police have a right to present a defense," Smith said. "It is usually embodied in either a collective bargaining agreement or public service commission statute or rules."

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Smith said it was unclear whether sustained national protest would diminish the labor's substantial power.  

"My guess is that they have a direct line into the White House and the Justice Department and they are exercising their muscle," Smith said. "They may have less influence with city councils and mayors in some cities."

In Florida, a local FOP chapter president was suspended with pay from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office pending an internal affairs investigation into the "unprofessionalism" of a Facebook post aimed at recruiting recently disciplined officers in Buffalo and Atlanta.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey described the posts by the officeras "despicable" and "disgusting."

 Yoes said the FOP, whose members number more than 300,000 officers, was quick to condemn the actions of Chauvin and three other officers charged in Floyd's death, saying the nation was "justifiably horrified" by the death and the "appalling" conduct of the officers.

"We cannot allow this to define our profession, and the nation's 800,000 police officers who are making a difference in their communities," Yoes said.

Yet Yoes, a captain in the St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office, acknowledged that the recent upheaval has underscored an immediate need to more thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of officer candidates before they are hired.

"Unions have a role, and that role is to represent people in law enforcement," he said. "We don't hire, but we are bound to represent them."

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Although Yoes defended the overall performance of officers, he also conceded that police have been increasingly asked to take on responsibilities for social ills that have little to do with law enforcement.

Large numbers of daily calls for service involve police encounters with the mentally ill and emotionally disturbed. County jails, Yoes said, have become de facto institutions for the mentally ill, noting large populations of mentally ill inmates in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York jails.

Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Tom Dart has referred to the "criminalization" of mental illness as a "national disgrace."

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More recently, Yoes said, officers have been thrust into the midst of the coronavirus pandemic to enforce state shutdown orders that have criminalized activities that would not have drawn a police response under normal circumstances, including breaking up church services and funeral gatherings that exceeded mandated limits.

"They showed up everyday and exposed themselves to the threat of COVID-19," Yoes said, adding that 117 officers have succumbed to the virus. "Disparaging every law enforcement officer is an injustice."

Yoes said labor is largely in agreement with some recent proposals including a ban on the use of chokeholds. But he said that ban should exclude instances when deadly force may be required, such as when an officer is fighting for life, as outlined in the National Consensus Policy on Use of Force.

The document, released in 2017, was a collaboration involving 11 groups including the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the nation's largest group of police chiefs.

Among other flashpoints in the recent scrutiny of police has centered on the use of surplus equipment provided by the military.

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The equipment transfer program was halted by the Obama administration following the high-profile use of battlefield-style equipment during the response to the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Missouri. That program was re-started in 2017 by the Trump administration, but Democratic lawmakers have now called for reviving limits on such equipment transfers.

Yoes said that he was not ready to endorse a new prohibition on such gear, saying there is "a need for hardened equipment."

"I know this equipment has been beneficial and has saved lives," he said.

Fact check:Police did destroy a medic area during protests in Asheville, North Carolina

Contributing: Florida Today