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The dispute began in 2007 after then-Attorney General Marc Dann established a special unit in his office to help county prosecutors with some of their toughest cases.

Soon, the Fraternal Order of Police complained that the unit was treading on the turf of its agents who work at the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. To make matters worse, the union said in its grievance that agents for the new unit were paid substantially more than the bureau's agents.

The bureau assists local police with DNA testing, ballistics and other technical aspects of crime-solving.

In a grievance filed in August, after Dann had resigned under pressure but before Cordray was elected, the Fraternal Order of Police said the roles of the special prosecutions unit and the bureau had gotten so blurred that many local police couldn't tell them apart.