Around here, police unions and societies use a professional telemarketing company. They all appear to use the same company, which hires gruff-sounding men (never women, in my experience) who "sound like cops" and all but represent themselves as such. The great bulk of any contributions go to the telemarketing company, not the police organizations.
If you make the mistake of donating to any one of the charities, you'll get calls from every supposed police group in the state, practically every day. They will offer you everything from plastic stickers, to miniature badges, to full-sized badges (complete with a leather case and a real-looking ID card), to bronze placards for your car, depending on the amount of your contribution.
The NYPD and a few other departments absolutely prohibit this type of solicitation on behalf of the department and the various unions representing service members, and actively confront companies that claim to be representing them. Departments that ban this sort of thing usually refer people who inquire about contributing to department-approved organizations, which do not use telemarketing. (For example, the NYPD will refer you to the
NYC Police Foundation if
you call and want to make a contribution. But the Foundation won't call you to ask for one.)
But the NYPD is one of the exceptions. Most of the other police groups in the state tacitly approve of telemarketing by accepting funds collected by the telemarketers. Although only a fraction of what is collected gets passed on to the groups, the telemarketing companies provide the mini badges, labels, stickers, and other official-looking trinkets; so it's free money for the organizations.
-Rich