Calls in some activist circles to “defund the police” haven’t gained much purchase with lawmakers and budget-writers, including in Massachusetts. But calls to “reform the police” still resonate with some.

The latter sentiment was on display during a recent City Council hearing on the contract talks between members of the Wu administration and the Dorchester-based Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA).

Called by Councillors Ricardo Arroyo of Hyde Park and Kendra Lara of Jamaica Plain, the Dec. 1 hearing sought to put a spotlight on the timeline of contract talks, community involvement in them, and priorities for inclusion in the agreement.

Public safety unions have typically resisted reforms, and contract discussions historically have played out behind closed doors. Some councillors, including President Ed Flynn, voiced some discomfort with the hearing, saying the 13-member body cannot be involved in talks between the union and mayoral administrations. He added that the city should focus on hiring more police officers.

While noting that councillors are prohibited from working on the contract, Kenzie Bok, the chair of the Committee on City Services that held the hearing, noted that they are able to hold hearings to foster transparency amid an opaque process.

Once a contract is finalized, it goes before the City Council for a vote, since it requires an appropriation.

City Hall observers widely expect talks between City Hall and BPPA to end up in arbitration. The City Council would also vote on any deal that emerges from arbitration, and several councillors appeared to indicate during the Dec. 1 hearing that reform is a key consideration for them if the process gets to that point.

The Council previously threatened to reject a past award that emerged from arbitration. In 2010, a state arbitrator handed down a 19.2 percent salary increase for the firefighters’ union Local 718, spanning four years, costing $74 million, and containing random drug and alcohol testing. The award drew criticism for its cost, and for including a reward for sobriety at the firehouse, amid an economic environment that had the city facing the prospect of layoffs and neighborhood groups were fighting against proposed library closures.

Councillors later signed off on a reworked deal that called for a 17.5 percent
salary increase over five years. Last week’s hearing , which lasted four hours, featured testimony from Lou Mandarini, a longtime attorney hired by Mayor Wu earlier this year as a top adviser on labor policy, and Brianna Millor, chief of community engagement. Mandarini said he could not discuss proposals that have gone back and forth across the table, but he did say discussions are “proceeding in earnest” and in “full swing.”

With 1,600 members, the BPPA is the largest police union out of a total of four. The BPD has faced multiple scandals in recent years, from the former head of the BPPA pleading guilty to child rape charges to another former union head pleading guilty to overtime theft.

Mandarini said that one of the administration’s priorities as they negotiate is the city’s approach to overtime. Not necessarily cutting spending, he said, but pursuing underlying drivers, such as police appearing in court. Reforming the detail system, which currently has only police monitoring areas such as construction sites, is another key issue, he said.

Councillors and administration officials have expressed an interest in opening up such lucrative jobs to civilians since there are more police detail slots than there are available officers.

Police reform was part of Wu’s platform when she ran for mayor last year. Her campaign’s blueprint was explicit: “It’s time to get serious about structural changes to the BPD with a contract that gets to the root of the cultural and systemic reforms we need — full transparency and true accountability for misconduct, reducing wasteful overtime spending to reinvest those funds in neighborhood-level services, and removing the functions of traffic enforcement and social services from the department’s purview.”

But the prospect of detail reform has drawn intense pushback from the police union, which argues that such a change will endanger public safety.

Larry Calderone, the current BPPA head, told councillors that he has been attempting to negotiate a contract for the union over two years and three different mayors. He said he was not invited as a panelist, and offered comments as a member of the public, claiming that some councillors don’t want to hear what he has to say.

He took aim at officials who blame police for every “woe” in society. “It’s because it’s easier to blame the police rather than look in the mirror and accept some of the responsibility yourself,” he said. “You claim to want to work together but your actions speak very loud.” Councillors recently gave themselves a 20 percent raise, he said, and not because they were working harder, he added.

Police are working double and triple shifts, generating overtime, because there aren’t enough of them, he noted, echoing Flynn’s call for hiring more police.

Boston is one of the safest cities in America, because of the BPPA, Calderone said, as the union enters its third year without a contract or thanks from some elected officials. “Now is the time to thank and reward your Boston police officers,” he said.

He recently told the Boston Globe that talks with the administration were at an “impasse,” and Councillor Lara asked Mandarini if that were so. He answered that negotiations are ongoing.

Every city union contract had expired by the time Wu assumed the mayorship a year ago, Mandarini noted, so they are now negotiating contracts that reach back years. The major talks are between the city and the firefighters and police unions, he said.