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Charles, way back when i was a shift director for SAPD, I went to one of the CLEAT conferences and heard Ron Delord (then President) explain why the union so often takes positions against what the membership thinks. I wish we could get this out to most people too.

He pointed out that CLEAT is NOT a police organization. It is a LABOR organization for police officers. It has a primary obligation to look at things from a labor point of view and take the position that benefits its members as a labor organization. Thus, many times it has a very Democratic position, since that is the party that does work best with labor. This is true and correct, even though most of its members have a much more Republican point of view. Unfortunately, many times it has to take a position it knows is not going to win in order to make political deals work that will benefit it from a labor point of view.

The problem is that the public views CLEAT as more of a police organization than a labor one. So when CLEAT takes a side, the public thinks the police have that opinion. It can make the police look like they support things they really do not, but it does deliver points on the labor mission.