City administrators answer questions about changes to Cleveland police union contracts at the Public Safety Committee meeting in City Hall on Nov. 22, 2023. Three members of Mayor Justin Bibb's administration and a Cleveland Police deputy chief sit at a conference table across from city council members that are in the committee.
City administrators answer questions about changes to Cleveland police union contracts at the Public Safety Committee meeting in City Hall on Nov. 22, 2023. Credit: Stephanie Casanova / Signal Cleveland

Cleveland police will get pay raises after City Council approved changes to their union contracts Monday night. But there is still work left to be done on the deal.

The top pay of a patrol officer with five years of experience will increase from around $68,000 to more than $84,000 a year. The lowest-paid patrol officers will now make more than $62,600. Police supervisors will also see a bump in pay.

The wage increase comes with a change in the officers’ work day. They will move from a 10-hour shift to a 12-hour work day in an effort to increase the number of officers on duty while reducing overtime hours.

Police administrators previously told the city that officers’ biggest complaint about the new deal was that the 12-hour shifts would cut into their overtime pay. 

Trainees are part of the deal. They will start with a higher hourly wage and receive a $5,000 signing bonus payable over the first year of employment.

The changes council approved Monday are part of Mayor Justin Bibb’s efforts to recruit and retain more police through what the city has dubbed the RISE initiative. 

The police department has 1,191 officers but has a budget for 1,498 sworn members. 

Pay increases for police currently on staff will cost almost $8.6 million starting next year, according to the city’s press secretary, Marie Zickefoose.

Deputy Chief Daniel Fay told the safety committee on Oct. 11 the city had already spent $20 million on police overtime this year, blowing past the $13 million budgeted.  

Changes to minor officer discipline expected later

Changes regarding officer discipline, for which the unions and the city signed an agreement last month, were not included in legislation presented to the council.

In October, city leaders and police union representatives negotiated the new contract with a provision that said officers who commit low-level civil offenses and who were not the primary officer listed in a complaint would receive only a warning.  

In an Oct. 25 hearing, Justice Department officials told city leaders they should have informed the consent decree monitoring team before agreeing to changes in the contract regarding discipline. 

During the Nov. 22 City Council Safety Committee meeting, city administrators announced there would be separate legislation addressing the discipline part of the contract once the discipline changes are revised. 

Ahmed Abonamah, Cleveland’s finance director, said the city’s law director and other administrators have met with the federal monitor and negotiated new language for the discipline change in the union contracts. 

The two unions – the Fraternal Order of Police and the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association – are now reviewing those changes, Abonamah told the committee. 

A freelance reporter based in Arizona, Stephanie was the inaugural criminal justice reporter with Signal Cleveland until October 2024. She wrote about the criminal legal system, explaining the complexities and shedding light on injustices/inequities in the system and centering the experiences of justice-involved individuals, both victims and people who go through the criminal legal system and their families.