The Minneapolis Police Department's new labor contract, which the Minneapolis City Council voted to authorize Thursday morning, will bring historic wage increases to the department.
The agreement, approved on an 8-4 vote, gives officers a 5.5% pay increase retrospective to July 1, a 2.5% increase on Jan. 1, 2025 and a 3.5% increase July 1, 2025.
Supporters of the new contract say the agreement will help address the department's staffing crisis and put MPD's compensation rates among the highest in the region.
Officers' pay will increase by 21% compared to current salaries over the next year, bringing starting salaries to $92,693, which the Minnesota Reformer notes is higher than the starting salaries for officers in Los Angeles and New York City.
“It enhances transparency, strengthens managerial oversight and equips MPD management with essential tools to better deploy limited resources and run the department," said Council Member Emily Koski, of Ward 11. "I will take these incremental changes as a win for our community and I’m happy to support this today.”
Opponents of the contract have cast doubt on claims that the agreement will improve staffing levels, arguing lack of reform measures deter officers from joining MPD, and the agreement does little to ensure the department recruits and promotes high-quality candidates.
Council Member Robin Wonsley, of Ward 2, and other opponents of the contract said the agreement does little to address MPD's problems, despite city leaders sometimes citing the contract as being a barrier to police reform following the murder of George Floyd.
“City leaders, including both electeds and our current mayor, pointed to this contract as being one of the main reasons for the lack of police accountability,” Wonsley said. “In fact, they said that this contract was why they were unable to keep bad officers off the force and why cops like Derek Chauvin were allowed to brutalize people for so long and without any accountability.”
During Thursday’s meeting, Wonsley said some of the police reform measures in the contract are temporary and fall short of expectations.
“I don’t see temporary gains for permanent raises as progress,” she said.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, of Ward 12, agreed that the contract doesn't go far enough to ensure reform and accountability, but Chowdhury - who voted in favor - said ending up in binding arbitration would risk losing the reform measures won within the contract.
"I feel like at this point this is the best option, even though this contract doesn't go for enough," she said.
MPD are currently subject of both state and federal consent decrees that require it to make sweeping changes to its policies and operations after investigations found patterns of discrimination and excessive force of a period of at least a decade.
The city has also paid out tens of millions of pounds in recent years to settle lawsuits with victims of excessive force from MPD officers.
The new agreement, which spans Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2025, can be viewed here .
An executive summary can be found here .
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