EASY FOR BRATTON TO SAY NOW

Easy for Bratton to Say Now

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has tapped some interesting witnesses to support its case for a significant pay raise in an ongoing contract arbitration, including at least a couple whose positions on police conduct placed them at odds with the union in the past.

One of the more conventional advocates for the union was ex-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who is now the Chief of Police in Los Angeles. He told the arbitration panel that Police Officers deserved higher salaries than all other uniformed personnel.

In an interview with this newspaper's Reuven Blau, Mr. Bratton amplified those sentiments, noting that the education standard of 60 college credits for new officers - which he implemented 12 years ago - exceeded that for fire, correction and sanitation personnel. In addition, he contended, the danger faced by cops "far exceeds [that faced by] firefighters and correction officers."

Even without comparing the death tolls for the two forces on 9/11, we would have to question his claim that firefighting is not just as dangerous as police work.

The city's chief negotiator, Jim Hanley, took sharp issue with Mr. Bratton's position for several reasons, not the least of them how it has changed since his days as head of the NYPD. Not only had the then-Police Commissioner supported pattern bargaining back then, said Mr. Hanley, he had opposed PBA efforts to gain the right to have contract disputes decided by the Public Employment Relations Board.

Mr. Bratton pleaded guilty but with an explanation, saying that he backed then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani's insistence that the PBA be treated the same as other uniformed unions because he believed his boss's statements that when the city's finances improved, he would be more generous to his cops.

Mr. Giuliani used a deal with the now-defunct Housing PBA in the spring of 1994 to reinforce a uniformed pattern first established by his predecessor, David Dinkins, with the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. That ultimately prompted the PBA to agree to terms early that summer - the only time since 1988 that the union did not wind up going to arbitration - that included an 18-month wage freeze followed by 7 percent in raises over 21 months. (There was a $4,000 "signing bonus" at the beginning of the pact for each cop, but that one-time payment was not rolled into salary and could not be used for pension purposes.)

Nor did Mr. Giuliani modify his position in the next round of bargaining, leading the PBA to go to arbitration. That award, which came down in September 1997, more than a year after Mr. Bratton left as Commissioner, treated cops more generously than civilian employees, but saddled them with the same two-year pay freeze at its outset that other city workers endured.

If Mr. Bratton argued during his tenure that increasing the educational requirement for cops entitled them to extra compensation - as it surely does - we are not aware of it. His forced departure came about not because of that issue or any other pertaining to pay for Police Officers, but because Mr. Giuliani grew resentful at how much media attention Mr. Bratton had gotten.

That reflects poorly on the ex-Mayor rather than the capable Police Commissioner, whose equal Mr. Giuliani didn't find with two less-than-stellar replacements. But Mr. Bratton therefore has less credibility as a witness for the PBA than if he had felt strongly enough about the pay issue to publicly risk antagonizing his boss on it back then, rather than playing the good soldier.

Now his remarks on the subject come with no personal risk attached, and so they are less likely to have weight with the arbitrators.