MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis police union overwhelmingly voted to approve its new contract, a deal KARE 11 first reported last week.
It includes about a 21% pay raise over three years and several key reforms.
In a statement, the City of Minneapolis wrote, "Following a 301-63 vote from its members to support the terms, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) has advanced a contract agreement that would deliver a historic boost in pay for Minneapolis peace police officers and significant reforms."
From public data requests to staffing flexibility, the still tentative agreement gets rid of decades-old agreements that effectively prevented the chief from making any necessary changes.
The news also comes at a time when the department is still grieving the murder of Officer Jamal Mitchell and struggling with competitive pay and short staffing.
"If we want to have any hope of continuing to be able to attract people like Jamal, in any sort of sufficient numbers, we absolutely need to get this agreement ratified," said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara.
The City of Minneapolis’ Labor Relations team and POFM had been at the bargaining table since Sept. 6, 2023.
The city has publicly released the full contract. It has also outlined some of the reforms and contractual changes in a news release that include:
Zipper Clause
It is common for parties to a collective bargaining agreement to address issues that arise in the middle of the term of an agreement through one-off letters of agreement (LOAs).
- The City and POFM have, over many decades, entered these LOAs and there has been confusion about which ones were still in effect.
- In this agreement, the parties have re-looked at those LOAs, decided which ones should still exist, and agreed that only the ones that are actually included as part of attached to the main agreement will continue into the future.
- This means the City, the Federation, and the public can know the full scope of what has been agreed to in writing at the start of the term of the contract.
Staffing Flexibilities
In the past, the collective bargaining agreement has controlled multiple aspects of how MPD assigns work, both in terms of shifts and locations and mandated numbers of promotions.
- The new agreement will give management more discretion over job assignments and staffing ratios, so that the Chief and his leadership team can assign officers to areas of the greatest need, and make promotions based on candidate readiness, not based upon a mandated percentage.
- The City also negotiated a change to significantly reduce the period of time it takes to fill vacancies.
Civilian Investigators
Minneapolis has undertaken the work of re-imagining its community safety system, ensuring personnel are being deployed where they’re needed most.
- With fewer sworn personnel serving in MPD, the City has continuously worked to identify opportunities to assign specialized civilian staff to clerical and investigative work, and enable officers to be out on the street and present in community, and more available to address critical needs.
- Through the new agreement, the POFM has agreed that the City can make permanent hires or hire civilians to assist with investigative work.
- By “civilianizing” work that can be completed by a non-sworn employee, the Chief will be able to keep the limited complement of MPD officers focused on critical safety work.
Public Data Requests
Officers will no longer receive automatic notification of the identity of the person requesting public personnel data about them.
Leave Time Period
When there are allegations of severe misconduct, the Chief will have complete discretion to place the officer on paid investigatory leave for up to 180 days. In the past, the Chief only had complete discretion for the first 30 days.
This gives the Chief more flexibility to keep an officer off the street while focusing on the investigation
"It’s a good contract," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. "This is some of the biggest improvements that we’ve seen in a long time."
The city council still has to approve the agreement and they're expected to consider it at their June 27th meeting. When asked if it's not approved, Chief O'Hara said it would be especially damaging to the department.
"We cannot, cannot, cannot, keep relying on overtime as much as do every day, every shift to provide basic levels of service," said Chief O'Hara. "It will be incredibly damaging if this is not approved."
In a statement, the police union wrote, "We are thankful of reaching a tentative agreement with the city that was ratified by the membership. We now wait for council approval, and hope that council will see value in this contract for hiring and retaining officers, especially given the clear and present reality that this is a dangerous profession."
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist:
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.