Bargaining in Blue, a monthly newsletter from Ballotpedia, analyzes recent police-related news and policy debates through the lens of police collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and police officer bills of rights within state statutes. These form the landscape within which police policy must be understood.

We provide in-depth context unavailable anywhere else by leveraging insights from Ballotpedia’s research and analysis of police CBAs in all 50 states and the top 100 largest cities by population accessible through our police CBA dashboard.

In this month’s edition of Bargaining in Blue: 

• On the beat: Minneapolis City Council weighs tentative CBA approved by police union, supported by the mayor and police chief, but opposed by certain police accountability reform advocates
• Around the table: Related arguments from the negotiating table, scholars, and the media on civilian investigators 
• Insights: A closer look at CBA provisions defining types of police officer discipline and key takeaways from Ballotpedia’s analysis

On the beat

Minneapolis City Council weighs tentative CBA, supported by the mayor and police chief, but opposed by certain police accountability reform advocates

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) voted 301-63 on June 4, 2024, to ratify a tentative collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the POFM. Following the vote, the agreement moved to the Minneapolis City Council. The first public hearing on the tentative CBA was on June 25. City Council President Elliott Payne said the council would vote on the CBA during its July 18 meeting to give time for one more public hearing and due consideration. Mayor Frey, however, called for the city council to approve the contract at its June 27 meeting.

Key provisions of the tentative CBA include:

• It would increase compensation for officers by 21.7% over three years.
• It would increase the managerial authority of the chief of police, including
  • increasing from 30 to 180 the maximum number of days the chief can place an officer on administrative leave or limited duty status pending a misconduct investigation,
  • allowing the chief to assign supervisors to officer duties, and
  • setting overtime requirements for officers.
• It would state that officer discipline, which requires just cause and reflection in publicly available records, only includes written reprimand, suspension, demotion, or discharge. The current CBA references certain types of discipline in provisions on disciplinary appeal but does not define disciplinary action.
  • This would explicitly allow the department’s practice of using one-on-one coaching not classified as official disciplinary action to correct certain policy infringements. This practice is the subject of ongoing lawsuits that argue the coaching practice was used not only for minor policy infractions but for major misconduct in order to avoid the transparency of official disciplinary action and that coaching as used by the department should be classified as a form of discipline subject to public records.
• It would increase the role of civilian investigators in the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and state conditions for hiring civilian investigators and restrictions on their activities.
• It would remove transfers from the list of disciplinary actions.
• It would remove the requirement that an officer be notified of the identity of anyone who requests access to their public records. It would leave in place the requirement that an officer be notified that a request was made and what records were requested.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey expressed support for the tentative CBA, saying, “It makes police officer pay competitive in the region, which of course helps us both retain and recruit police officers that are working tirelessly right now. I’m for that. And it gets some important changes and managerial authority where it should be — with the chief — which is something that is long overdue.”

Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) urged the city council to vote against the agreement in a public comment, arguing that it does not address accountability concerns; gives too much power to the police chief; and codifies a coaching practice used, according to lawsuits filed against the department, to prevent transparency on officer misconduct. On the compensation provisions of the tentative CBA, CUAPB wrote, “It is unconscionable to give a 21.7% pay increase to members of a department that cost the city at least $71,319,324 million [sic] since 2019 (with more to come) in misconduct lawsuits, not counting legal fees. That level of pay increase should be reserved for a police force that shows an appropriate level of service and accountability to the community.”

Police Chief Brian O’Hara pointed to the large number of police officer vacancies when expressing support for the tentative CBA, “Our staffing is so incredibly low, 40% below what had been normal here.” He also said it was not up to the CBA to enact reform, “It is my job to reform the Minneapolis Police Department. The mayor, the council and the residents can hold me accountable for that.”

If approved, the agreement would be effective retroactively from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2025. The previous agreement between POFM and the city was adopted in March 2022 and was also retroactively effective from January 1, 2020. It expired on December 31, 2022.

Want to go deeper?

• Police hiring, training, and disciplinary requirements by state and city
• Ballotpedia’s Police Collective Bargaining Agreements Dashboard
  • See the Insights section below for relevant CBA dashboard queries and analysis based on them

Around the table

This month in Around the table, we’ll look deeper at the details in the Minneapolis tentative CBA relating to civilian investigators to highlight the union’s position on them. We’ll also take a step back to look at the surrounding policy debate.

Civilian investigators, also referred to as case investigators, are personnel hired to handle evidence gathering, investigations, and low-risk calls but who are not sworn officers, do not have a badge, and are generally unarmed. 

The tentative CBA in Minneapolis states that the purpose of civilian investigators “is to assist sworn personnel, not supplant them, and to meet the needs of the MPD in serving the residents, businesses, and visitors of Minneapolis during the present staffing shortage.” Provisions of the Minneapolis tentative CBA also state that sworn personnel cannot be laid off due to lack of funds or lack of work as long as case investigators are retained under the agreement. 

Jackie Belasky, the sales and marketing principal for Orion Communications—a software company aimed at developing workforce solutions for public safety organizations—wrote that civilian investigators are part of a growing trend across the country to civilianize law enforcement by hiring non-sworn personnel to serve in certain investigative and leadership positions.

Belasky argued that civilianization can help solve officer shortage problems that departments across the country are facing. Belasky also said:

This approach is about more than simply filling vacancies; it’s a strategic move to infuse diverse perspectives and expertise into law enforcement.

Belasky also argued that the civilianization of law enforcement—in which civilian investigators play a part—could improve the interactions of the public with police services:

These initiatives improve police-community relations while enriching the decision-making process within departments. The infusion of diverse civilian perspectives ensures police practices align more closely with community needs and values. This alignment is essential for building public trust.

Columnist Joel E. Gordon wrote an article for Blue Magazine in 2022 about the concept of hiring civilian investigators to assist police departments. Gordon included arguments from police union leaders in Baltimore who said civilian investigators were a distraction from what they believe should be the priority of police departments: 

Police union leaders, however, expressed skepticism about the plan and said department leaders should focus on hiring more officers.

‘The priorities of the BPD should be recruitment and retention of sworn personnel,’ said Sgt. Mike Mancuso, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3. ‘The reason for hiring civilian investigators is nothing more than the BPD’s acknowledgment that the BPD cannot hire or retain sworn officers.’

Insights

Key takeaways from our dashboard on CBA provisions defining types of discipline

The debate and legal battles in Minneapolis over the police department’s coaching practice and whether it should be classified as discipline and subject to the associated transparency and public records requirements highlight the nuance of CBA disciplinary language. It not only matters what types of disciplinary actions CBAs explicitly define, but it can also matter when CBAs do not explicitly limit the definition of disciplinary actions, depending on the governance and practices of the police department.

Let’s dive deeper with a query for provisions of city police CBAs related to police discipline in our CBA dashboard (click here to explore this query yourself):

• 71 of the 100 largest cities address disciplinary actions with some level of detail in their police CBAs.
  • 21 cities did not have police CBAs or the information was not available. We did not find provisions addressing discipline types in eight city CBAs.
• At least seven cities explicitly include oral reprimands or counseling as a type of discipline in their police CBAs.
• At least eight cities explicitly include transfers as a type of discipline in their police CBAs.
• Notably, the police CBA of St. Paul, Minnesota, says that discipline can include any of the following types: oral reprimand, written reprimand, suspension, demotion, or discharge. Like the current Minneapolis CBA, it does not explicitly limit discipline to only those types.
• Click here to see a query in our dashboard comparing the current Minneapolis CBA with that of St. Paul, MN, and Lexington, KY, regarding three discipline-related research questions. Lexington is an example of a city that defines discipline to include only certain types of discipline.

Let’s use a similar query but for state police CBAs (click here to see for yourself):

• At least 23 states, including Minnesota, and the District of Columbia define certain types of disciplinary actions in their CBAs with state police unions.
• At least six states explicitly include oral reprimands or corrections as a type of discipline in their police CBAs.
• Four states explicitly include transfers as a type of discipline in their state police CBAs. One state, Alaska, explicitly prohibits transfers as a type of discipline.
• 24 states do not have police CBAs or the information was not available. Discipline types for misconduct were not addressed directly by the state CBAs in three states.
• Notably, the state police CBA of Connecticut explicitly states that informal oral reprimands and constructive criticism should ordinarily precede formal discipline for areas of inefficiency and incompetence, but are not required for neglect, insubordination, or willful misconduct. Click here to see all the discipline-related research questions we currently have in our Dashboard for Connecticut’s state police CBA.

Snapshot

Below is an image showing how the query comparing the current Minneapolis CBA with that of St. Paul, MN, and Lexington, KY, regarding three discipline-related research questions looks in our CBA dashboard: