NYPD Union to Challenge NFL Ban on Off-Duty Cops Carrying Guns in Stadiums

An NYPD union is challenging an NFL rule which prevents off-duty cops from carrying guns in NFL stadiums. According to the New York Post, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) is planning on filing a legal action to change the rule.

“The NFL is telling us that highly trained law enforcement officials shouldn’t be allowed to enter stadiums with their guns,” SBA President Edward Mullins said.

There are currently two teams which are exempt from the rule, the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans. Each team convinced the NFL that Texas gun laws have precedence over NFL policy. In those stadiums, off-duty police officers have to notify officials where they are sitting before they’re admitted into the venue.

As the Post reports, the NFL feels that the on-duty security at stadiums is adequate.

“The on-duty law enforcement personnel assigned to NFL stadiums are specially trained and required to participate in weekly meetings pertaining to pre-game and game day security and law enforcement planning, strategy and emergency response procedures and protocols,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy wrote.

According to the Post, SBA lawyers will soon submit “friend of the court” legal filing which would be connected to a Minnesota lawsuit by local police unions there which are challenging the policy.

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