A police strike is a potential tactic when law enforcement workers are embroiled in a

labour dispute A labor dispute is a disagreement between an employer and employees regarding the terms of employment. This could include disputes regarding conditions of employment, fringe benefits, hours of work, tenure, and wages to be negotiated during co ...

. Sometimes military personnel are called in to keep order or discipline the strikers. Police strikes have the potential to cause

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

List of police strikes

Europe

* Great Britain (1918, 1919) * Paris general strike during Liberation (1944) * Ljubljana (1993) *Ireland (1998) * Amsterdam (2007) * Ljubljana (2010)

North America

* 1919 Winnipeg General Strike * Boston Police Strike (1919) * Detroit (1967) *

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, whi ...

(1967) *Cicero Police Department, Illinois (1969) *Berwyn Police, Illinois (1969) *Des Plaines Police, Illinois (1969) *Harvey Police Illinois (1969) *Waukegan, Illinois (1970) *Lake County Sheriffs Police, Illinois (1970) *Skokie Police, Illinois (1970) *Wheeling Police, Illinois (1970) *Skokie, Illinois (1975) *Maywood Police Department *

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

(1969) *

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

(1971), *

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

(1974) * San Francisco (1975), * Cleveland (1978) * New Orleans (1979) * Birmingham (1979) * Toledo (1979) * Santa Barbara (1980) * Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1981) * Corona, CA (1983)

South America

* Bahia, Brazil (2001) * Alagoas, Brazil (2001) * Brazil (2004) * 2010 Ecuador crisis. Police strike/coup partly in relation to planned benefit reductions. After a state of emergency and the near assassination of the president, the government steps away from planned cuts to police and military benefits. Police and military pay is then also increased. * Bahia, Brazil (2012) *

2013 police revolts in Argentina The 2013 Argentine police revolts were a series of protests by Law enforcement in Argentina, provincial police demanding better pay and working conditions, which affected 21 of Argentina's 23 provinces. Some of the strike methods included neglec ...

. Police strike over the value of their non inflation-indexed pay being eroded by rampant background

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

. After days of national chaos, individual regional police forces receive pay increases ranging between 33% and 45%."Law and disorder"

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

, Dec 11th 2013. *

2017 Military Police of Espírito Santo strike The 2017 Military Police of Espírito Santo strike was a strike by the Military Police of Espírito Santo State from 4 to 25 February 2017. Military policemen in Espírito Santo launched to an illegal strike after demonstrations by relatives i ...

in Brazil * 2020 Buenos Aires' State Police strike

Australia

* 1923 Victorian Police strike

Asia

* Shanghai (1940) * New Delhi (1946)

Africa

* Cairo (1948)

Dynamics

Legality

United Kingdom

In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Police officers are currently banned from taking strike action under the Police Act 1996. The police have been banned from striking since an earlier Police Act passed in 1919. The Police Federation of England and Wales balloted members in 2013 for the right to strike but failed to gain enough signatures to change the law.

Causes

One cause for police strikes has been increases in the difficulty of policing itself. The wave of American police strikes in the late 1960s and 1970s accompanied other forms of social unrest—which themselves put pressure on police forces. Also, police wages, which had historically been exceptional, declined relative to the wages of other workers. Police strikes have also occurred in situations where national control was in question and the police's alignment differed from the current rulers (i.e. in occupied France and India).

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2017 * Labor disputes Law enforcement