“Unprecedented loss of personnel that is not easily corrected”

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled this week in favor of Minneapolis citizens who were forced to sue just to ensure the city maintained a proportion of police officers guaranteed in the City Charter. A win for public safety.

The devil is in the details. Depending on who is reporting, Minneapolis must hire somewhere between one and two hundred officers just to get to the minimum 731. That doesn’t include normal attrition — and times aren’t normal. It also doesn’t get the MPD anywhere near traditional staffing numbers approaching 900 — a number that is more reasonable when confronting the level of crime we see today. 

Minneapolis Police sources have indicated that the plan to hire four recruit classes of 40 officers in the next year is fraught with challenges. So many challenges in fact, that early numbers of recruits remain in the low teens. 

Minneapolis must compete against all the other law enforcement agencies trying to fill gaps in their staffing — and for many, working for city officials who have gone out of their way to denigrate the police, the option isn’t appealing.

It is conceivable that despite the MPD’s best efforts, it will take three to four years to rehire enough officers to abide by its own Charter. All the while the health of our state’s signature city deteriorates. 

As Scott Johnson of Powerline recently wrote: “Minneapolis has elected the practical alternative to defunding the police.”