i mean they are unions, they're just reactionary unions and tools of the bourgeoisie. Rather than pretending they're not unions at all we should just recognize that not all unions are good. Eugene Debs gave a very famous speech about "craft consciousness" and how some unions hold back the proletariat by protecting their narrows craft interests rather than the broader class interests of the workers. This line to me seems more logical than trying to deny that cop unions are unions, which just makes us sound like we're contradicting ourselves.
You raise a good point. My gut reaction is to bring up they the function of police is to protect the bourgeois class rather than the proletariat, rather then functioning to lift up workers. I think my visceral, tangible hatred for cops is tainting my view here.
I wouldn't say your view is tainted, just that you're saying the correct thing, but in a way that might confuse people not familiar with our ideology. I'm just putting myself in the shoes of someone who doesn't understand socialism yet. In a way you're absolutely right. Cop unions aren't unions in the same sense that national socialists aren't socialists and urinal cakes aren't cakes.
Not every association to support a group is a union. Yours is one way, but we could also say that unions in the sense of labour union / Gewerkschaft means something different. Both ways and likely others are possible.