Photo by Victoria Pickering.

The D.C. police top brass and leadership at the Fraternal Order of Police have reached a new collective bargaining agreement. This is the first contract that did not require impasse or arbitration since 2001, per Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.

The contract, which comes after about a year of negotiations, includes wage increases (a 3 percent retroactive raise for fiscal year 2018, a 2 percent raise in 2019, and a 3.5 percent raise in 2020) and insurance coverage under the District’s dental and vision plans, rather than independent coverage.

This agreement has significantly less drama than the last one, reached in 2014 with the help of an arbitrator. That compromise followed six years without a pay raise for Metropolitan Police Department officers, and included a 4 percent raise beginning in the middle of 2013, nothing in 2014, and a 3 percent raise annually after that through 2017.

The arbitrator sided with the city over the union, which had sought raises retroactively beginning in 2009. Some FOP officials wanted the D.C. Council to reject the contract, NBC Washington reported at the time. A union press release accused then-Mayor Vincent Gray of “permanently poison[ing] the District’s relationship with its police officers.”

This new agreement was announced by Mayor Muriel Bowser, Police Chief Peter Newsham, and Stephen Bigelow, Jr., the chairman of the FOP’s MPD Labor Committee.

Newsham said in a release that the “increase will help attract new officers to the Metropolitan Police Department as we continue to navigate the current retirement bubble.”

D.C. police faces an imblance of retiring officers and new recruits A hiring surge of 1,500 officers between 1989-1990 means a slew of officers are now eligible to retire. In 2017, the city implemented a series of incentive programs to encourage growth in police ranks.

This contract needs to be ratified by Fraternal Order of Police members before heading to a vote at the D.C. Council. The Fraternal Order of Police represents approximately 3,500 law enforcement workers in the District.