Hodges to meet with police union chief for first time since TV story flap

Mayor Betsy Hodges said Tuesday that she and John Delmonico, the Minneapolis police union president, are planning to meet in the near future.

It will be their first meeting since Delmonico criticized Hodges in a KSTP-TV news story focused on a photo of the mayor posing with a vote canvasser with a criminal record. He asked, on air, if the mayor supported gangs or the police.

Hodges fired back a response in a blog post, asking if Delmonico's comments amounted to a position that the mayor shouldn't stand with young black men — or if she should stop challenging the police department on the conduct of officers. The mayor has said previously that the department has room for improvement.

"It could be that the head of the police union wants me to stop working to raise the standards of police culture and accountability," she wrote. "It could be that he objects to the community policing and relationship-building measures that I am acting on, and attempted to use this non-story to discredit this work."

The mayor said she's hopeful the meeting will improve relations between her office and the union. She noted that she aims to root out long-term problems with some officers in the department, who do not represent a majority of the police force.

Erin Golden • 612-673-4790