Fraternal Order of Police

Updated on Nov 10, 2023

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The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is a fraternal organization consisting of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It reports a membership of over 325,000 members organized in 2100 local chapters (lodges), organized into local lodges, state lodges, and the national Grand Lodge. The organization attempts to improve the working conditions of law enforcement officers and the safety of those they serve through education, legislation, information, community involvement, and employee representation.

FOP subordinate lodges may be trade unions and/or Fraternal Organizations, as the FOP has both Labor Lodges & Fraternal Lodges and describes itself as a "full service member representation organization." It lobbies Congress and regulatory agencies on behalf of law enforcement officers, provides labor representation, promotes legal defense for officers, and offers resources such as legal research. It also sponsors charities such as Easter Seals, Special Olympics, memorials for fallen officers, and support programs for spouses and family members of police officers.

History

The Fraternal Order of Police was founded in 1915 by two Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania patrol officers, Martin Toole and Delbert Nagle. They and 21 other members of the Pittsburgh Police met on May 14, 1915, establishing the Fraternal Order of Police its first local, Fort Pitt Lodge #1. The FOP official history states that the founders decided to not use the term "union" because of "the anti-union sentiment of the time," but nevertheless acted as a union, telling Pittsburgh mayor Joseph G. Armstrong that the FOP would "bring our aggrievances before the Mayor or Council and have many things adjusted that we are unable to present in any other way...we could get many things through our legislature that our Council will not, or cannot give us."

In 1918, it was decided that the Order should become a national organization. The Orders constitution stated that "race, Creed or Color shall be no bar". The constitution also had a no strike pledge, but this has not been enforced since 1967 when FOP police in Youngstown, Ohio refused to work during a salary dispute. In 1974 and 1975 the FOP stated that it would take no action against members who violated the anti-strike clause until all efforts were exhausted on the local and state level.

During the 1960s the FOP opposed the creation of police review boards, spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy, at one point describing them as a "sinister movement against law enforcement". The FOP also clashed with the ACLU on the issue of police brutality, seeing it as a "liberal attempt to discredit law enforcement". The Order was "heartened by Richard Nixon's emphasis on law and order", though it remained strictly apolitical.

Emblem and motto

The Fraternal Order of Police emblem is a five-pointed star. According to the FOP:

The five-cornered star tends to remind us of the allegiance we owe to our Flag and is a symbol of the authority with which we are entrusted. It is an honor the people we serve bestow upon us. They place their confidence and trust in us; serve them proudly.
Midway between the points and center of the star is a blue field representative of the thin blue line protecting those we serve. The points are of gold, which indicates the position under which we are now serving. The background is white, the unstained color representing the purity with which we should serve. We shall not let anything corrupt be injected into our order. Therefore, our colors are blue, gold and white.
The open eye is the eye of vigilance ever looking for danger and protecting all those under its care while they sleep or while awake. The clasped hands denote friendship. The hand of friendship is always extended to those in need of our comfort. The circle surrounding the star midway indicates our never ending efforts to promote the welfare and advancement of this order. Within the half circle over the centerpiece is our motto, "Jus, Fidus, Libertatum" which translated means "Law is a Safeguard of Freedom."

When adopted, the motto was believed to be Latin and assumed to mean "Fairness, Justice, Equality" or "Justice, Friendship, Equality". Actually, the motto is a grammatically impossible and hardly translatable sequence of Latin words; the current interpretation is the best that could be made of it.

In the center of the star is the coat of arms of the city of Pittsburgh.

Organization and Membership

The FOP constitution and bylaws provide that active membership is open to "any regularly appointed or elected and full-time employed law enforcement officer of the United States, any state or political subdivision thereof, or any agency may be eligible for membership" and that "each state and subordinate lodge shall be the judge of its membership." Local lodges often have provisions for retired law enforcement officers. The subordinate lodges are supported by state lodges which are subordinate to the Grand Lodge. TheGrandLodge is the national structure of the order.

In 1978, the Order had 138,472 members, 1,250 lodges and 34 state structures.

In the late 1970s, the Order's headquarters were located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The national organization has three offices: the Labor Services Division in Columbus, Ohio, the Steve Young Law Enforcement Legislative Advocacy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Grand Lodge "Atnip-Orms Center" National Headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary

The Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary (FOPA) is the auxiliary organization of FOP for family members of FOP members. It was formed by a group of wives of Pittsburgh police officers in 1920, and Kathryn M. Milton became its first national president, in 1941 as the Fraternal Order of Police Ladies Auxiliary. It reports over 2,000 members in 140 Auxiliaries in 25 states. In 1985, non-female members older than 18 were admitted for the first time; in 1987, the current name was adopted, dropping the term "Ladies."

Fraternal Order of Police Associates

The Fraternal Order of Police Associates (FOPA) is a civilian affiliate organization that is made up of FOP supporters not eligible for membership. Its members include friends and family of members, businesspeople, professionals, and other citizens. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Political advocacy

Passed legislation supported by FOP includes the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act, and HELPS Retirees Act. Pending legislation that FOP lobbies for include the Social Security Fairness Act, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007, and the State and Local Law Enforcement Officers' Discipline, Accountability and Due Process Act.

The FOP distributes questionnaires for candidates for president and Congress asking them about their views on issues relating to police officers.

FOP has the following issue positions:

Supports the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) in current law.

Supports the recommendations of the President's Commission To Strengthen Social Security to privatize Social Security, and opposes "mandating participation in the Social Security system for either current or newly hired State and local government employees that do not currently participate in Social Security.

Supports "minimal collective bargaining rights for public safety employees," including law enforcement officers and firefighters, and supports the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007.

Supports due process rights of law enforcement officers in non-criminal administrative proceedings and supports the State and Local Law Enforcement Discipline, Accountability and Due Process Act.

Supports the Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act, which would expand the definition of "law enforcement officer" under the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System to include all Federal police officers, as well as Customs and Immigration Inspectors.

Supports the REAL ID Act.

In response to the 2014 killings of NYPD officers, President Chuck Canterbury asked Congress to consider making crimes against police officers fall under the category of hate crimes.

Legislation Opposed by the National Fraternal Order of Police in the 114th Congress

H.R. 46 (Jackson-Lee, D-TX), the "No More Tulias: Drug Law Enforcement Evidentiary Standards Improvement Act," which would significantly limit States who fund anti-drug task forces from receiving Federal funding from the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistant Grants program.

H.R. 51 (Jackson-Lee, D-TX), the "Traffic Stops Along the Border Statistics Study Act," which would require the U.S. Attorney General to collect race and other data on traffic stops made by State and local law enforcement officers.

H.R. 429 (Johnson, D-GA), the "Grand Jury Reform Act," which would end the use of grand juries to evaluate the conduct of any death caused by a law enforcement officer acting in the performance of his sworn duty and require a special prosecutor to take the case before a judge.

H.R. 707 (Chaffetz, R-NM), the "Restoration of America's Wire Act," which would undo the actions made by States in regulating Internet gaming and preventing fraud and abuse online.

H.R. 923 (Stutzman, R-IN), the "Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act," which would allow any civilian concealed carry permit holder to travel to any other State issuing concealed carry permits without any training or safety requirements.

H.R. 1137 (Price, R-SC), the "Paid for Progress Act," which would slash by 8.7% the pay of certain Federal employees.

H.R. 1230 (Westerman, R-AR), the "Government Employee Pension Reform Act," which would change the formula for determining pension benefits for civilian Federal employees from the best-earning three years to the best-earning five years of service.

H.R. 1933 (Conyers, D-MI), the "End Racial Profiling Act," which would define "racial profiling" as any consideration of race, national origin or ethnic origin to initiate a traffic stop or vehicle search absent an eyewitness description and requires the collection of race and other data by State and local law enforcement during routine investigatory activities.

H.R. 4002 (Sensenbrenner, R-WI), the "Criminal Code Improvement Act," which would overturn long-standing court holdings on mens rea standards and applications and replace them with a new standard.

S. 498 (Cornyn, R-TX), the "Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act," which would allow any civilian concealed carry permit holder to travel to any other State issuing concealed carry permits without any training or safety requirements.

S. 1056 (Cardin, D-MD), the "End Racial Profiling Act," which would define "racial profiling" as any consideration of race, national origin or ethnic origin to initiate a traffic stop or vehicle search absent an eyewitness description and requires the collection of race and other data by State and local law enforcement during routine investigatory activities.

S. 1668 (Graham, R-SC), the "Restoration of America's Wire Act," which would undo the actions made by States in regulating Internet gaming and preventing fraud and abuse online.

Legislation that would impose any tax, direct or indirect, on any employer-sponsored health coverage.

Legislation which would weaken the overtime protections for law enforcement officers in current Federal regulations.

Legislation or amendments that would have the effect of weakening P.L. 106-185, the "Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000".

Legislation which would create or fund "civilian review boards" of law enforcement at any level of government.

On September 16 2016, the FOP endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump for President.

Data breach

In January 2016 the site was hacked and files released to a dark web activist known as Cthulhu.

References

Fraternal Order of Police Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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