City, police union resolve impasse

The president of Little Rock’s largest police union said the organizing body has resolved an impasse with the city over negotiations on a new contract after talks stalled last month and the union requested federal mediation.

Ronnie Morgan, president of the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 17, said last week that the union had resolved a dispute over the composition of the police negotiating team that will deal with the city before the two sides sign a new agreement for 2021.

“We are currently no longer at impasse and we are negotiating, and we look forward to signing a contract with the city in the near future,” Morgan said.

Morgan declined to elaborate on the specifics of how the dispute was resolved.

“We agree when we sit down to start negotiating with each other that we won’t talk to the media,” he said.

According to Morgan, federal mediators did not end up working to break the impasse and did not get involved in the dispute.

Last month, the Fraternal Order of Police told the city that the union had requested federal mediation to resolve a dispute over the makeup of the police bargaining team.

In a Nov. 16 letter to Mayor Frank Scott Jr., Morgan said the city had requested that four representatives of and selected by the Little Rock Black Police Officers Association join the negotiating team alongside representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police.

The addition of four individuals would create a nine- member negotiating team on the side of the police, Morgan said, a setup that he described as “totally unnecessary” and “extremely [unwieldy] and counterproductive.”

The Fraternal Order of Police represents more than 95% of the Little Rock Police Department workforce “without regard to race, sex, ethnicity or sexual orientation,” Morgan noted in the letter.

As a result, the union was requesting assistance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, he wrote.

Shortly after the Fraternal of Police announced the push for federal mediation, Scott released a statement Nov. 18 endorsing the inclusion of representatives of the Black Police Officers Association at the negotiating table.

“The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) loses no bargaining authority with BPOA at the table, yet we expect this model will have major implications for our path forward to create a more unified negotiations process,” Scott said.

“We understand that this is different from what the FOP has done for 40 years,” Scott added. “However, our city is different, and my administration is working to ensure all LRPD members’ voices are heard.”

Stephanie Jackson, a spokeswoman for the mayor, did not respond to requests for comment.

Next year, Morgan will remain on the board of the Fraternal Order of Police as the immediate past president, but Zachary Farley will succeed him as president, Morgan said Wednesday.

Although the onetime stalemate over the 2021 contract negotiations appears to be a limited dispute, tension over the direction of the Little Rock Police Department, the police chief and the influence of the Fraternal Order of Police has persisted for the better part of this year.

A succession of police officials have sued Police Chief Keith Humphrey and the city, alleging retaliation in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Bradley Blackshire in February 2019. Humphrey has countersued in federal court, alleging a conspiracy to remove him from his job.