Dover City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the city’s police union Monday by a vote of 7-2.
According to Delaware State News, the contract will run retroactively from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2018.
Under terms of the agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police, a new officer’s starting salary in the Dover PD will be raised to about $50,000.
Additionally, newly hired officers will pay 20 percent of their total health care premium and will be required to work 20 years to receive health coverage as part of their retirement.
Officers must also submit to a yearly fitness test.
City council was scheduled to vote on the new police union contract last month but postponed the vote after some residents raised concerns over the reinstatement of suspended police Cpl. Thomas Webster.
In December, Webster was found not guilty of a felony assault charge after kicking an unarmed black man in the head in 2013.