The Minneapolis City Council will vote Thursday on a new contract with the police union.
If passed, Minneapolis Police Department officers would be among the highest paid in the Twin Cities, which leaders hope will help boost hiring at a time when they're hundreds of officers short of minimums set by the city's charter.
Critics say the contract doesn't include enough reform measures. But Minneapolis north side Councilmember Latrisha Vetaw disagrees.
"We have the chief, who has been working on lots of reforms already," says Vetaw. "And I think that's gonna continue to happen. We have the consent decree coming in and there'll be reforms through that."
The consent decree Vetaw referred to now legally requires Minneapolis to implement police reform measures that have already been agreed upon with the state. It follows a finding by the Human Rights Department that the MPD engaged in a pattern of discriminatory policing for years leading up to the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
"I've been a critic of the chief, but on this contract, I think we agree 100%," Vetaw explained. "We agree, you know, and also with the mayor and myself. But what plays out in public really is these unnecessary fights with the mayor and the chief. We don't always have to be on the same page, but what we need to do is the best for our employees and the best for the residents."
The contract would increase officer salaries by more than 21% over the next year.
"I asked a question in one of the committee meetings about where that would put us on the scale here in Minnesota," Vetaw tells WCCO's Adam and Jordana. "We're at number five and I'm ok with us being at number five for now, but I think we should always be number one in Minneapolis."