By KERRY M. KIRSPEL
Shreveport police officers have formed a new union.
“Back in December we formed a new police union under the International Union of Police Associations,” said Officer Angie Willhite. “We have an association here. We wanted to combine with our brothers and sisters across the United States and fall underneath an international organization. So we formed a new Shreveport police union. We are Local 275 under IUPA (International Union of Police Associations).”
What was the catalyst for forming a new union? Willhite said, “We wanted to create a union that was a little different, that had some protections that we didn’t feel we had available to us here locally.”
She said they partnered with IUPA “because slowly but surely everything’s been kind of taken away from the officers here. We no longer have education incentive. IUPA pays for most, if not all in some cases, of our education up to an associate’s degree.
“There’s a lot of insurance and legal protection that also comes with joining IUPA.
“We also have the benefit of a lot of research that they’ve done,” she said. “That’s really important to us because to do research on things like new vests for women — that was an issue that came up a few years ago — that’s a lot of time to be able to conduct a study and run a pilot program and money in buying the different things that you want.”
Willhite said she thinks that the department paid for the pilot program for the women’s vests. “Personally, I like the new vests. They’ve been a big improvement, but with IUPA we have the benefit of that research being done for us and us not having to incur the costs of having that done.”
Because women’s bodies are shaped from men’s, the female officers benefit from IUPA’s research in determining the best vests suitable for female officers “without having to do that research ourselves.”
Willhite said Shreveport police officers are also going to be focusing heavily on community involvement, both with the police community and the civilian community. “We’re going to start a number of grassroots things right here at the police department because, let’s be honest, the bond didn’t pass. We’re not getting a new building, but we can band together and do for ourselves to make our quality of life better here at the police department.”
Willhite said there has been “a lot of division, and we’re trying to bring the department back together.”