Minneapolis Police Chief Takes on Union, Promises Reform

[SummerMadness]

Minneapolis Police Chief Takes on Union, Promises Reform

The Minneapolis Police Department will withdraw from police union contract negotiations, Chief Medaria Arradondo said Wednesday as he announced the first steps in what he said would be transformational reforms to the agency in the wake of George Floyd's death.

Arradondo said a thorough review of the contract is planned. He said the contract 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 said it's debilitating for a chief when an officer does something that is grounds for termination, but the union works to keep that person on the job, and on the street.

"This work must be transformational, but I must do it right,” Arradondo said of changes to the department.

Arradondo also vowed to use new systems and "real-time data” that would examine officer performance data to quickly spot problem officers and intervene. He said an outside analytics firm would be used to track the data.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Minneapolis Police Chief Takes on Union, Promises Reform

Maybe finally the Minneapolis Police Department will get some long overdue reforms and the culture of that department will change. I'm not excessively hopeful though. Minneapolis has been run by Democrats since I was little. Hennepin county has been run by Democrats for almost as long. And Minnesota has had predominantly Democrats as governors although the state houses go back and forth. Minneapolis has had essentially single party rule for generations now. And somehow they haven't fixed the problem. Now they say they will fix the problem.