1994 and 2020, over 55 police unions donated $1 million to different federal election campaigns. In the same time period, over $87 million was spent by police unions on lobbying and elections on the local level. History of police unionization In 1892, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) formed in New York City, originally as a fraternal organization. Today it represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers. Another 11,000 are represented by the Sergeants Benevolent Association. In 1915, the first chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police was formed in Pittsburgh. As a national organization, some of its lodges are independent municipal unions, but the FOP is not a labor union nor affiliated with any. It remains open to all levels of law enforcement members, including management. In June 1919 the American Federation of Labor began chartering local police organizations as affiliates. The first was the police force of Knoxville, Tennessee, followed by cities such as Cincinnati, Washington DC, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Fort Worth, and Boston. By September it had granted charters to police unions in 37 cities, over the protests of city officials reluctant to allow unionized public employees, and the protests of existing union members resistant to admitting police to their ranks. This set the stage for the catastrophic Boston Police Strike of 1919. The Boston force had informally organized since 1906 as the "Boston Social Club". They applied for an AFL charter, which was newly granted on August 15. The city and state, with shared oversight, both forbade this, and rejected a compromise. On September 9, some 72% of the police force refused to work. The city descended into four days and nights of lawlessness, with widespread property damage and nine killed outright, eight of them by members of the 5,000 Massachusetts State Guard ordered in by Governor Calvin Coolidge. More than 1000 officers were fired and replaced by the city at the higher salaries the union had struck for. The event had a pronounced chilling effect on police unionization for decades. The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association was formed 46 years later, in 1965, following a change in state law. A national police union would not be approved until the International Union of Police Association in 1979. In 1935, the Wagner Act was passed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowing private sector employees to collectively bargain. It wasn't until later