THE Minneapolis Police Department is set to withdraw from the police union contract negotiations as reform calls dominated after George Floyd’s death.
Chief Medaria Arradondo shared the news on Wednesday as he announced the first steps in what he said would be transformational reforms to the agency.
Arradondo said a thorough review of the contract is planned and that it needs to be restructured to provide more transparency and flexibility for true reform.
The review would look at matters such as critical incident protocols, use of force, and disciplinary protocols, including grievances and arbitration.
He added that it’s debilitating for a chief when there are grounds to terminate an officer and a third-party mechanism works to keep that person on the street.
“This work must be transformational, but I must do it right,” Arradondo said of changes to the department.
He also promised new research and strategies to spot and intervene with problem officers.
“We will have a police department that our communities view as legitimate, trusting and working with their best interests at heart,” he said, adding that the department has to address issues of racism head-on.
Arradondo sidestepped a question about whether he thought union head Bob Kroll, often seen as an obstacle to reform, should step down.
He also didn’t directly answer a question about whether citizens should worry about a slowdown in police response time as a pushback against attempts to transform the department.
Some City Council members have said in the past that their wards saw such slowdowns when they complained about police action.
The potential reforms have come following the death of George Floyd.
The 46-year-old died last month after white cop Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on his neck during an arrest.
All four police officers have now been charged over the case, with Chauvin set to face the more serious charge of second-degree murder.
Arradondo fired the four officers even before they were criminally charged, while activists took their calls for change to the streets in Minneapolis and beyond.
A majority of Minneapolis City Council members called for dismantling the department, but they provided no clear plan on how that would happen.
Mayor Jacob Frey said he would not support abolishing the department, but he would favor a cultural shift in how it functions.
He also spoke about Arradondo’s commitment to changing the police force.
On Monday night, in an interview with CNN, Frey told Chris Cuomo: “I’m committed to this reform. By the way so is our Chief and he has our full support.”
Former police Chief Janee Harteau said she received pushback from the union when she was trying to make changes.
Bob Bennett, an attorney who said he has sued the department “hundreds” of times over police misconduct allegations, has said that the union has more sway over police conduct than chiefs do, the Associated Press reported.
Arradondo, the city’s first African American police chief, joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 1989 as a patrol officer, eventually working his way up to precinct inspector and head of the Internal Affairs Unit, which investigates officer misconduct allegations.
Along the way, he and four other black officers successfully sued the department for discrimination in promotions, pay and discipline.
Many hoped Arradondo could change the culture of a department that critics said too frequently used excessive force and discriminated against people of color.
Arradondo spoke of restoring trust during his swearing-in ceremony and made some quick changes, including toughening the department’s policy on use of body cameras. But critics have continued to call for more change.
