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According to interviews with more than 40 police officers and union insiders, The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA) plans to announce a campaign to unseat New York police union leader Pat Lynch. In the hours after two New York police officers were killed in December, Lynch accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of having "blood on his hands." The NYPD has come under criticism after the murder of black man Eric Garner at the hands of white officers in July.
While Lynch became the face of the NYPD's distrust in the mayor's office, his support among the rank-and-file is slipping, said insiders.
"Pat Lynch has lost the membership,” said police veteran and union delegate Sean Guzerian. "The bosses don’t respect him, and the cops are tired of him. They look at him as a politician, not a police officer."
However, Lynch denies the claims. "I’ve turned the old, corrupt, ineffective PBA into a member service organization where the members' needs are always first and foremost," he told Reuters in an email. Since Lynch's election in 1999, he has secured the nation's largest police force a 56 percent cumulative pay raise.
However, critics say that Lynch has failed to negotiate new labor contracts with the department in the last five years.
Lynch responded to the proposal to change the union's leadership saying, "Elections are good things."
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