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City, Indianapolis Police Department Agree on Contract

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The city and its police union announced a tentative agreement Tuesday on a three-year labor pact that might end 15 months of rancor between officers and Mayor Bart Peterson.

The agreement would give a 3.33 percent average annual raise to police during the life of the contract. City officials said they did not know the deal's overall cost to taxpayers.

The deal, which awaits approval by the 1,200 men and women who would be covered, is the closest city and union leaders have come toward ending a stalemate that began even before the last contract expired Dec. 31, 2002.

To be finalized, it must also win the approval of the City-County Council.

"This is a positive sign of the parties working together," said Robert Turner, director of the Department of Public Safety. "We want to compensate the police officers for what they do."

The announcement, made late Tuesday inside the Courtyard Marriott hotel Downtown after two days of sometimes-heated negotiations, marked a pivotal event in what has become one of the city's thorniest issues and most controversial labor disputes.

According to the tentative agreement:

Officers would receive a 3 percent retroactive pay raise for 2003, 3 percent in 2004 and 4 percent in 2005.

More senior officers could receive step increases that would increase their pay up to 6.9 percent. The city agreed not to hinge raises on the performance of the economy or on the city's finances at the time.

"It removes those hurdles. And it's very clear that those raises that are for senior officers are part of this deal," said Scott Chinn, the city's lead attorney. He was part of the labor negotiations team.

Police hired after 1984 will receive a fifth week of vacation after 20 years' service.

The city will increase its contribution to health insurance premiums for active officers by roughly 5 percentage points, meaning lower out-of-pocket expenses for medical bills.

Negotiations had begun in May 2002 but ground to a halt within seven months. Since then, progress came only in fits and starts. It was unclear why the stalemate broke this week, although the FOP's suggestion of a three-year contract instead of four was a big help. The FOP also decreased the yearly wage increase it demanded. The city also will provide more insurance than it previously agreed to.

Vince Huber, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, called it a "good contract" but said the deal did not match what officers have been asking for since 2002 -- parity with other Midwestern cities.

"This attempts to close that gap, but there is a large gap between the officers of IPD and those other cities," Huber said. He added the increases should provide momentum when negotiations begin again in a year.

Huber thinks union members will approve the deal, possibly by March 24.

The deal comes two days after about 40 officers and wives held a peaceful protest and follows a grass-roots campaign that included billboards and recent threats of workplace action. Officers hinted at widespread "marking out of service" -- putting droves of on-duty officers on break at the same time -- or taking more time than necessary to complete calls for service.

Huber said there were no hard feelings between him and Peterson.

Mike Spears, assistant chief of police, said the tentative agreement "will go a long way" toward rebuilding relations between top brass and the rank and file.

"Anything which may have occurred in the past few weeks was born out of frustration," Spears said, "and that frustration will be eliminated with this contract. And it's time now to get back to the business of police and reducing crime and providing good-quality service."

Chinn said the city will put together a "fiscal impact review" to see what the contract will cost taxpayers and how it would affect the kind of raises city firefighters will receive. The firefighters' contract has a provision that provides parity with police increases.

Sherron Franklin, a city-county councilwoman and a Downtown patrolwoman, said "definitely, definitely" morale should improve.