Minneapolis police chief takes on union
He also announced transformationl reforms to the agency
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department will withdraw from police union contract negotiations, Chief Medaria Arradondo said Wednesday, as he announced initial steps in what he said would be transformational reforms to the agency in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Faced with calls from activists and a majority of City Council members to dismantle or defund the department, Arradondo also said he would use a new system to identify problem officers early and intervene.
“We will have a police department that our communities view as legitimate, trusting and working with their best interests at heart,” he said at a news conference more than two weeks after Floyd died when a white officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed black man’s neck even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.
Activists have pointed to racial inequities and brutality, as well as a system that rarely disciplines problem officers. The officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, had 17 complaints against him and had been disciplined only once.
Arradondo said “taking a deliberate pause” to review the union contract is the first step toward change. He said it’s debilitating for a chief when an officer does something that calls for termination, but the union works to keep that person on the job.
Advisers will look for ways to restructure the contract to provide more transparency and flexibility, he said.