the IUPA. Sometimes described as a "union," the National Association of Police Organizations is solely a lobbying organization. Police Benevolent Associations A Police Benevolent Association, or Policemen's Benevolent Association, or Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), is a frequently used name for law enforcement labor unions in the U.S. Examples include the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, and the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association. Several Police Benevolent Associations have a tradition of distributing courtesy cards to friends and family members of police officers. In 2012, the director of the Police Institute at Rutgers University stated that the practice was at least 40 years old and probably much older. While police departments have repeatedly denied that they support favoritism for cardholders, the cards have come to be called "get out of jail free cards" colloquially based on anecdotal reports that they have helped drivers receive a warning instead of a speeding ticket. Officers speaking anonymously have supported the view that the cards are designed to help certain people avoid minor citations. The legitimacy of the cards is a subject of debate with critics maintaining that it is a form of police corruption for officers to take them into consideration. A professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice has said of the system that "it sets up different sets of rules". In 2018, the number of PBA cards allotted per officer in New York was lowered from 30 to 20. This was in response to many of them appearing for sale online. The New York Times prohibits its journalists from accepting the cards out of concerns that doing so would prevent them from covering the police objectively. Lobbying and activism In addition to collective bargaining on behalf of their members, police unions engage in political advocacy around "law and order," crime legislation and legal protections for individual officers. Efforts by the Department of Justice to regulate policing through consent decree, civilian oversight, and prosecution of police misconduct have been stalled or forbidden by police union contracts. In 2014, the Fraternal Order of Police lobbied unsuccessfully for the continuation of Pentagon's 1033 program, which allowed for excess military equipment to be given to civilian police departments, after it was discontinued by President Obama. Police unions also generate significant political donations. Between