Minneapolis is sending more funds to its police. A new budget, recently proposed by Mayor Jacob Frey, would raise property taxes across the city, using the money to fund eight new classes of recruits for the Minneapolis Police Department. This is something of a worst-case scenario for “defund the police” enthusiasts, but here in the Cities, their movement seems to be dying with a whimper. Frey clearly must do something to respond to rising crime, a contracting police department, and even a direct order from the Minnesota supreme court to hire more cops. Under Minneapolis’s city charter, the city must employ 0.0017 officers per resident, which would currently require a minimum of 731. There are now just over 600.
It is grimly amusing to recall how, just two years ago, Frey was fighting with a city council that wanted to fire more than 100 officers. The mayor argued that the force would be understaffed with just 750. A compromise was struck that reduced the budget without cutting personnel. In the end, though, the city council got its wish. Hundreds of officers quit their jobs, and now Minnesotans are complaining about rising crime. Relationships between police and citizens are especially strained in the Powderhorn Park and Central neighborhoods, which are served by the Third Precinct, whose building was infamously razed by rioters in the summer of 2020. Residents now complain that the police are thin on the ground and that calls often go unanswered for long periods of time. Meanwhile, the problem has spread outwards. Crime has been rising across the state, and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has been working on advertising campaigns meant to attract more young people to law enforcement.
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