10.2190/UNQA-U9C4-HXHG-M6TG UNQAU9C4HXHGM6TG 0 DETERMINANTS OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY BY POLICE UNIONS 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=UNQAU9C4HXHGM6TG 3 KEVIN M. O'BRIEN Public employee unions have long been active in the municipal political process, but there have been few studies of the determinants of this activity. Using the most recent version of a national survey of municipal labor relations, a number of trends for police unions were discovered. The decrease in political activity observed in the late 1960s and through the 1970s appears to have ended. This study found particularly large increases in candidate endorsements and financial contributions, with the only decline occurring in state-level lobbying. In terms of the determinants of the political activity by police unions, a number of factors proved significant. The most important included the percentage of homeowners in a city, the existence of a bargaining agreement, and union size, all of which generally increased the level of political activity by a police union.