MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The above video originally aired on November 10, 2023.
Minneapolis leaders announced Tuesday afternoon that the city and the union representing Minneapolis police officers reached a tentative agreement for a three-year contract.
Few details of the deal are being shared before members of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis vote on it.
The tentative contract agreement comes after eight months of negotiation, which included five public negotiation sessions and multiple mediation sessions with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services.
"This is good news for the Minneapolis community safety system and the residents and visitors who rely on it," Mayor Jacob Frey said in a terse news release. "This agreement will advance critical reform work and make significant progress on competitive pay for Minneapolis officers and recruits."
Stacey Gurian-Sherman, a lawyer-turned-leader of the community group Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract, fought to have the negotiations made public, in part, due to state law.
"We have a right to see what is being negotiated on our behalf, because after all, a contract is a trust arrangement," said Gurian-Sherman. "And if they’re not part of the police contract, then we have to really wonder, are there real critical reforms as the mayor claims."
The group says it's made up of volunteers making recommendations for sensible and significant changes to the Minneapolis police contract. They have worked on two other contracts and this time, proposed 22 recommendations. Some items include clearer conduct expectations, mandatory mental health screenings, a race and gender equity plan, and more flexible staffing.
She also said that those reforms should dictate wage increases as the city struggles with competitive pay and short staffing.
"We've known this city has had problems for decades," said Gurian-Sherman. "What we need is to finally have a police department that will go through that transition, willingly, and a city with a backbone to push for that."
The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) released a statement saying, in part, that the details will be shared with its members throughout the next week.
"The POFM believes this agreement will fulfill our goal of providing competitive compensation for our current and future Minneapolis police officers," the statement reads.
Last November, Mayor Frey announced that the city and the union signed a letter of agreement on the issues of officer recruitment and retention. The agreement calls for existing officers to receive $18,000 in incentives over three years, while new officers will get $15,000 over the same period.
Tuesday's news release did not say when the union contract vote would occur but only that the "contract will then go to the City Council for approval."
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