criminal-law police
What is the legality of Police Union &quot;Get Out of Jail Free Cards&quot;?
<p><strong>Background</strong><br />
I recently read an <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7gxa4/pba-card-police-courtesy-cards" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> about donators and friends of police unions being given passes, which allows them to be let off of the hook for small crimes, such as traffic tickets.</p>
<p><strong>Questions</strong><br />
What is the legality of these passes? Can police unions be charged for corruption or fraud? What is the role of an individual officer in a case like this? Are any cities actively fighting these police unions in court?</p>

<p>Let's break it apart:</p>
<ul>
<li>The police has an union or charity.<br />
That's legal in most jurisdictions.</li>
<li>The union or charity accepts donations from non-police.<br />
Also legal in most jurisdictions.</li>
<li>The union communicates who the donors are.<br />
Generally legal in most jurisdictions. Keeping it secret would be just as problematic.</li>
<li>Police officers have some discretion if and how they charge incidents.<br />
That's just common sense. Otherwise you get cases like 8-year-olds being arrested. (You get those anyway when the police don't use their discretion, or if the laws are too rigid.)</li>
<li>Police officers let themselves be influenced by the donor card in how they apply their discretion.<br />
That's usually illegal on the part of the <em>police officer</em>. The Brits use the catchphrase 'without fear or favour.' But it is difficult to prove, even if it is systematic.</li>
<li>The union issues <em>donor cards</em> to facilitate the effects of the previous bullet point.<br />
That sounds at the very least <em>unethical</em>. Some might argue that it is organized corruption.</li>
</ul>
<p>On the other hand, you can assume that the police unions have some decent lawyers on staff, and that they made sure that the words on their cards are not blatantly illegal in the jurisdiction in question.</p>
<p>It might take something like a whistleblower, a sting operation, or an internal affairs investigation to prove corruption.</p>
