The main problem, of course, is that police are never really off duty and political campaigns are never really over. There are candidates who haven't run for office for years who maintain campaigns and hold fund-raisers.
The idea that this issue merely involves cops who will take off their uniforms at 3:30 p.m. in order to wave signs along the highway for a certain candidate a month before the actual election is fantasy.
Yes, we are talking about an individual's right of free speech, which even police officers have. But you'd have to be brain dead not to realize that we are also talking about the perceived power of police officers over ordinary citizens and the political pressure that will come to bear on high-level police officers.
I think the police eventually will look back with fond nostalgia on the days when they were not allowed to take part in political campaigns. For instance, can you imagine the pressure on the police chief to personally endorse an incumbent mayor? Sure, the appointment of police chief is supposedly nonpolitical. The police commission serves as the buffer between the mayor and selection as chief. But the mayor appoints the police commissioners and past police chiefs have served pretty much at the grace of the mayor.
I'm sure if I were mayor, it would irk me to have the police union support my opponent. If that happened, I'd expect my police chief to come out and publicly support me. Up to now, the police chief could raise his arms and say, "Hey, no can do, big guy. It's the law." That was a convenient out for a top cop looking to stay out of the political fray and just do his job.
NOW that's not the case. And even though our current police chief Michael Nakamura has said he won't get involved in political campaigns, that doesn't mean future chiefs won't. Or that Nakamura will not be pressured to do so. Former police chief Doug Gibb is running the political campaign of Peter Carlisle, who is running for prosecutor.
If Nakamura were to come out in favor of Jeremy Harris for mayor, he'd have to do it on his own time and, I guess, in civilian clothes. But I don't care if he appeared on television wearing a cocktail dress and sombrero, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that he was not speaking as Joe Citizen, but as Jack Lord Jr.
The same pressures will now be on the deputy chiefs. They will feel the need to hitch their career hopes to a certain candidate. Boy, are they going to miss the days when they could just sit on the fence.
I think there will be a larger concern by average citizens about average cops. I know we've all had that weird feeling when we get that phone call from some guy asking us to buy tickets to the fire department rodeo or such. You kind of feel, like, if I don't buy a ticket, what happens if my house catches fire?
Be honest now. If a police officer comes by your house to raise money for a candidate, are you going to give or not? And if you don't, how are you going to feel? A little vulnerable? And since you don't know which cop might be stumping for which candidate, do you think you'll put any political bumper sticker on your car? Or will you think that it's better to appear noncommittal? And if that happens, is the officer's right to free speech infringing on yours, simply because of his special law enforcement status?
These are just questions. And I guess we'll know the answers soon enough.
