Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Minneapolis city leaders are currently negotiating a new police contract with the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation that will be in effect through 2025.
Our city leaders are proposing important new accountability provisions for this contract. We support these accountability provisions and want Minneapolis residents to understand their value and the importance of supporting city leaders to stay tough and keep these provisions in the final signed contract.
We believe the most important of the city's proposed accountability provisions are as follows and are referenced by their number in the city's contract proposal:
Eliminate discipline reversals based on "past practices"
City Proposal 7 would deal with a longstanding problem. It would stop the practice of arbitrators overturning discipline imposed by police administrators because similar misconduct was not disciplined in the past. The use of "past practices" sections in police contracts has limited the ability of police administrators to promote reform.
No overturning of discipline unless it was "arbitrary and capricious"