ROLL CALL: Capitol Police Chief’s Relationship With Union Hits New Low.

Members of Congress have been raising questions about morale among Capitol Police officers in recent weeks, but the strained relationship between rank-and-file officers and the department’s top brass appears to have hit a new low.

Contract negotiations between the Capitol Police union and department management have hit a wall. Union leaders laid out three major sources of tension in a Feb. 23 letter to Chief Kim C. Dine obtained by CQ Roll Call. It stated the officers concurred with a Jan. 7 statement by Dine that, “contract negotiations are officially over.”

The department wants to change the disciplinary process by creating a matrix that breaks down different ranges of penalties, according to Capitol Police Labor Committee Chairman Jim Konczos. The union supports the matrix as a way to impose new checks and balances on the disciplinary system, but it wants to negotiate how the matrix will look.

A matrix.