As one of New York City’s most prominent police unions conducts its first internal vote to decide which candidate to support in the 2024 presidential election, some officers already know who they think should be in the White House.
The Detectives Endowment Association, which represents 18,000 active and retired NYPD detectives, is asking its members to fill out a survey and vote on which presidential candidate the union should officially endorse, sources told The Post.
“It is incumbent on union leadership to understand how our members feel before endorsing a candidate running for office — before we ultimately decide to support someone,” said a letter sent to members from DEA President Scott Munro.
The vote marks the first time the DEA has asked its members to vote collectively on who the union should support – a decision on support is usually made by the union’s president or leadership.
But some say a vote is a waste of time because a majority of officers see Donald Trump as the clearly pro-police candidate.
“I don’t think the polls are meaningful if they’re just trying to get statistics. We know Trump supports law enforcement,” one law enforcement official told The Post.
The unusual vote came four years after the city’s most powerful police union, the Police Benevolent Association, said it would back Donald Trump, breaking with a decades-old tradition of refraining from endorsing the president.
While the DEA did not officially endorse Trump in 2020, its leadership aligned with the PBA in rhetoric favorable to the former president, positioning him as a law-and-order candidate in the face of the Black Lives Matter protests and anti-police rhetoric that swept across the country ahead of the election.
“Our membership is very diverse and so are our opinions, which is why we want to hear from all members, active and inactive,” the letter said.
Voting for the DEA will take place online from July 8th to August 8th.
Participants will be allowed to abstain from voting or write in their own candidate other than President Trump and Joe Biden, according to the letter.
“The best detectives in the world are members of the most diverse NYPD in history, and the results of this poll will let local, state and national leaders know how we feel and what we intend to do in November,” Munro told The Post about her decision to vote in this election.
While holding an internal endorsement vote is unusual, it is common for union leaders to advise members on who they should vote for.
“The PBA constantly sends out emails recommending who to vote for. I’m trained to take advice on big elections and elections that benefit the NYPD,” the police source added.
