I'm not convinced it is the fact that they have a union is critical for their extensive protections, even in the US there are many other classes of jobs that ha

I'm not convinced it is the fact that they have a union is critical for their extensive protections, even in the US there are many other classes of jobs that have unions and they do not enjoy anything like the protection the US police does. The most reasonable explanation for benefits far in excess of what other unions can muster is the fact that they have a privilege simply by being police, which makes sense since they are largely the force used to suppress other challengers to the authority of employers. In other words, they got these protections because their employers were willing to accept them, safe in the knowledge that they didn't need those avenues to extract accountability, not simply because their union asked for it.