Police officers in Niagara region have a healthy new contract.

An arbitrator has awarded them salary increases of almost 10% over three years.

The settlement covers 680 uniform and 304 civilian members of the Niagara Regional Police Service.  It is retroactive to January of 2009.

By the time that the contract expires in December of 2011, a first-class constable in Niagara will be making over 83 thousand dollars a year.

The contract went to arbitration after Niagara's police association and the region's police services board reached in impasse this past spring.