I was hearing a podcast today and the issue of police unions were discussed

[Lurks Often]

6. Police Unions are smaller and generally don't attract much attention

until something major happens. (At least they are smaller in CT, where each town police department tends to have it's own union.)

And in the end, they do what all unions are supposed to do, actively work to protect the employees of the union. It's just sometimes we really don't like it when a police union is successful.

Realistically how many of us not in a union or related to someone in a union pay much attention to what a union does unless it makes headlines somewhere?

On edit: Note that most, if not all, police unions are forbidden to strike, do walk outs and other such negotiating tactics available to a more typical union.