Defunding by any other name
The Minneapolis Police Department still has a staffing problem.
When most people hear the phrase “defund the police,” they think of city councils and municipalities explicitly cutting or severely restricting budgets and resources available to law enforcement departments. But even in the wake of social shifts and the loud cries of activists, this is a losing proposition — doing so runs counter to most people’s common sense. But there is a more ambiguous means to restrict the power and effectiveness of police: through attrition.
This is how activists who put in motion the “defund the police” movement have largely accomplished their goal, fueled by a sustained effort to disparage and devalue law enforcement. This effort has demoralized our officers and emboldened criminals. As a result, unprecedented numbers of peace officers have left the profession in recent years and fewer people are interested in taking their place. Interestingly, many police department budgets have grown because the need to recruit and retain officers has strengthened the market for law enforcement pay.
The situation has created a law enforcement staffing crisis, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Minneapolis. The result is a public safety vacuum that has negatively impacted our signature city.
In 2019, before George Floyd became a household name, Medaria Arradondo, a person of color who was born and raised in Minneapolis and rose to the rank of police chief, gave the city council some sobering news: Minneapolis was failing to keep pace with a growing crime rate and a growing population. Chief Arradondo predicted that the city would need about 1,300 police officers by 2025 to properly police the city — an increase of 400 officers from the approximate 900 employed in the late 2010s. He asked the city to add 80 police officers per year over the next five years to improve response times and investigative efforts, reduce overtime and burnout, and to allow officers time to interact and build relationships with the community. The cost for this investment was estimated at $40 million over five years. Minneapolis would be in a much different place today if that proposal had not been rejected.
In the following months, George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody set off rioting, unrest, and a “war on cops,” which significantly damaged the thin blue line of police protection. It wasn’t necessarily the unrest that affected the officers — they’d dealt with that before. It was when leaders, the courts, the media, and the public all turned their backs on them.
Law enforcement is one of the most diverse professions in existence, reflected in the different communities, religions, races, and genders it represents. It is filled with dedicated, caring, and professional individuals. The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) exemplifies this more than most government agencies. Yet, post-Floyd, the department was disparaged as a racist organization, and the loudest voices making this claim came from the Minneapolis City Council.
This ignorant and short-sighted campaign represented a breaking point for many officers who had faithfully served the city and its residents. MPD officers resigned and retired in massive numbers. From 2020 to the time of this writing, 482 officers have left the department while the city has struggled to attract new applicants.
As of August 2024, MPD has a historic low of 508 active, full-duty police officers from the police chief down. After staffing investigations, training, and supervisory positions, about 200 officers patrol the city every day around the clock. Reports indicate there are shifts with as few as four officers on duty in an entire precinct — a number completely inadequate for the call volume and their priority levels in Minneapolis.
In 2020, the Upper Midwest Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight North Minneapolis residents. These citizens demanded that the city abide by the city charter mandating it maintain a 1.7 officers per 1,000 citizens ratio. They cited out-of-control violent crime juxtaposed against the reality of a city council openly proposing eliminating its police department (an effort fortunately rejected by voters).
The citizens prevailed in the suit, and the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered Minneapolis to abide by its charter maintaining the required ratio, which equates to 731 officers based on census numbers. Despite the court order, the city has failed to live up to its obligation — largely because it cannot attract candidates willing to work in a city that has been openly hostile toward law enforcement officers.
The staffing crisis, largely a consequence of the actions of the city, places Minneapolis among the worst police staffing ratios for major cities in the entire nation. The 503 active officers represent a staffing ratio of 1.2 officers per 1,000 citizens — 50 percent less than the national average of 2.4 officers per 1,000 citizens. This puts Minneapolis in the company of Portland and Seattle, which are widely viewed as failing to provide proper public safety to their citizens.
The anti-police rhetoric from city leaders and the corresponding police staffing crisis have created tangible increases in violent crime. Comparing the first six months of 2024 to the same period in 2019 shows Minneapolis has experienced devastating increases in murders (113 percent), robberies (52 percent), and aggravated assaults (32 percent).
In March 2024, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara announced, “Imagine Yourself,” a recruitment campaign aimed at young people living within 300 miles of the city to consider a career as a Minneapolis police officer. The effort is being funded in part by $7 million in 2022 federal American Rescue Plan funding. Few initiatives are more important to Minneapolis’ future.
A thriving, vibrant, safe city is in the best interest of those who live, work, and visit Minneapolis. The path toward those goals is exponentially harder if the city is unable to turn around the police staffing crisis its own city council created.