MINNEAPOLIS _ Minneapolis police Chief Medaria Arradondo revealed the first of a series of department reforms Wednesday, starting with pulling out of negotiations with the union representing rank-and-file officers and redeveloping an intervention system to track and address problem behavior.
Arradondo said he will withdraw from negotiations with the Minneapolis Police Federation, and bringing in advisers to see how the contract can be restructured for greater transparency and changes.
"I need to as chief step away from the table with the Minneapolis Police Federation and really take a deep dive in terms of how we can do something that is historically been something that is in the way of progress, that I've been hearing from many in our city," Arradondo said. " ... It's time that we have to evolve."
Arradondo said the focus will be toward significant aspects of the contract like use of force, the "significant" role supervisors play and the discipline process, including grievances and arbitration.
"I believe I speak for my chief peers here in the state of Minnesota, as well as across our country, that there is nothing more debilitating to a chief's perspective, that when you have grounds to terminate an officer for misconduct and you're dealing with a third-party mechanism that allows for that employee to not only be back at the department, but to be patrolling in your communities." he said.
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the union which represents more than 800 Minneapolis and park police, has avoided making public comment since George Floyd's May 25 death under the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin, resulting in widespread protests, looting and riots. Chauvin has since been charged with manslaughter and murder, and three other officers charged with aiding and abetting. In a letter to union members, he blasted the city's handling of the ensuing riots, in which he told officers that they were being made "scapegoats" for the continued violence.
Arradondo on Wednesday declined to say whether Kroll's removal from union representation would affect his efforts toward reform, but expressed frustration with the difficulty in firing problem officers.
Arradondo also said the department will use "real time data to intervene with officers involved in problem behavior." An attempt to implement a similar so-called Early Intervention System that was first introduced in 2014, but appeared to never take off.
"I want to say this again: over the past weeks I've been approached and received e-mails and phone calls from sworn officers and civilian employees, and they have unequivocally said 'Chief that is not us; that is not who we are' and they are going back out into communities and try to rebuild that trust," he said. "It's going to be a heavy lift but I am determined we are going to be on the right side of history."
A key component of that, he said, will be attempting to earn the trust of minority communities.
"Race is inextricably a part of the American policing system," he said. "We will never evolve in this profession if we don't address it head on. Communities of color have paid the price for this, especially with their lives."
Mayor Jacob Frey applauded Arradondo's efforts, saying the chief has his full support. Efforts at reform, he said, "can't be lip service" and "can't be the status quo."
"We don't just need a new contract with the police. We need a new compact with the police. One that centers around compassion and accountability, one that recognizes that the way things have been done for decades and decades is unacceptable," he said.
