Eighteen months of “intense” negotiations led to a new five-year deal between the city and its largest police union, a “groundbreaking” agreement that includes a 9%  raise in salary and significant reforms around officer discipline and overtime.

The deal was reached last Friday and ratified by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association membership Monday evening. Mayor Michelle Wu plans to file a docket for the agreement ahead of the Wednesday City Council meeting, saying that her aim is for the left-leaning body to take a vote by the end of the year.

“At the end of the day, this is a contract that is fair and equitable to the men and women in uniform that are answering those calls for service,” Larry Calderone, president of the 1,500-member police union, said at a Tuesday morning press conference at City Hall. “At the same time, we help policing evolve.

“I know the famous word out there is reform, but I like to look at it as police evolving. We are bringing policing into the future.”

Calderone said the terms of the new contract allow for educated officers who are “being fairly compensated in what is undoubtedly one of the most expensive cities in the country.” It includes incentives for three additional colleges and majors.

The collective bargaining agreement will cost the city roughly $82.3 million, or a 21% increase over a five-year retroactive period, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2025. It includes annual base wage increases for officers of 2%, 1.5%, 2%, 1% and 2.5%.

Wu said that while contract negotiations have historically been about “compensation and compensation alone,” the city, police department and union took a different approach this time, resulting in a deal that is “unlike any other that the city has reached with our law enforcement personnel.”

The “groundbreaking” contract, Wu said, includes “significant” operational reforms, increased educational opportunities for officers and a retention program.

It also tightens up procedures that had been leading to forced overtime and cracks down on discipline, Wu said, by “eliminating the pathway” for suspensions and terminations to be overturned in the arbitration process if an officer is indicted for or if a sustained internal affairs finding is issued and upheld for specific criminal acts.

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A press release issued by her office includes a lengthy list of such criminal offenses, including sexual assault of a child, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, firearms use during a felony and hate crimes.

“Our highest priority is and always will be our resident safety and we must hold all that we entrust with that responsibility to the highest standards,” Wu said. “There should be no loophole for those who commit grave criminal acts to wear a badge.”

While the mayor noted that the “intense” contract negotiations, which included a foray into arbitration, meant that both sides were left wanting on certain terms that had been put forward, Calderone and the city’s police commissioner were largely supportive of the new disciplinary reforms.

Calderone and Wu mentioned the case of the disgraced former police union head, Patrick Rose, who pleaded guilty last year to 21 counts of child rape and sexual assault over a 27-year period, with Wu saying that union membership voted “overwhelmingly” to hold themselves “to the highest standards.”

Despite charges of sexual abuse leveled against him in the 1990s, and a complaint that was sustained by the BPD Internal Affairs Division, then-Police Commisioner Paul Evans “did not discipline or terminate Rose.” Instead, Evans bowed to union pressure and reinstated Rose, allowing him to work for BPD for the next 23 years, according to a lawsuit his victims filed against him and the city this past June.

“The one thing that a police officer dislikes probably the most is a dishonest police officer,” Calderone said. “It embarrasses every man and woman that’s in uniform. That’s what this discipline language does, it clarifies that we can never have an incident like Pat Rose in the future.”

Police Commissioner Michael Cox added, “This is an exceptional start to make sure people who are fired stay fired.”

The terms also tighten up medical leave procedures, which resulted in roughly 10% of officers from the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, which represents about 70% of the police force, being out on medical leave, leading to forced overtime to cover staffing shortages.

Rather than addressing medical leave through arbitration, an independent medical examiner will determine an officer’s fitness to return to work after being out on leave, a change that aims to simplify a process that had often involved disagreements between the officer and department’s doctors, Wu’s office said.

The contract also seeks to deter forced overtime for paid details, by including increased hourly pay for and prioritizing events that pose a substantial risk to public safety, and eliminating double-booking of details, a practice that allowed officers to be paid for two details during the same period of time.

Wu stepped in personally over the weekend to close the deal, ending an 18-month negotiations process that her labor advisor Lou Mandarini described as being respectful at all times, “except for when it wasn’t.”

The police union filed for arbitration in late December 2022, and the state’s Joint Labor Management Council took jurisdiction of the case in April, but the two sides were ultimately able to reach an agreement across the bargaining table.