Collective Bargaining Rights and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida

12/28/2020 Scholarship

By Dhammika Dharmapala, Richard H. McAdams, John Rappaport & Campaign Zero

Study: Our estimates imply that collective bargaining rights led to a substantial increase in violent
incidents of misconduct among sheriffs’ offices, relative to police departments. The effect of
collective bargaining rights is concentrated among sheriffs’ offices that subsequently adopted
collective bargaining agreements, and the adoption of these agreements is associated with
increases in violent misconduct.