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SEARCHOvertime hours due to staffing shortages has doubled since last year, finance director Robin McPherson told the council. The department also eliminated several units, like some community response teams and those focused on gangs and weapons.
The Minneapolis Police Department has lost nearly 300 officers since last year as violent crime surges in the city, depleting resources to respond adequately, Chief Medaria Arradondo told the city council Monday.
In a budget presentation seeking $27 million more in funding for the department in 2022, Arradondo said there are 598 active sworn officers this year compared to 853 in 2019. The budget proposal calls for increased funding to rebuild core services.
The patrol bureau, tasked with responding to 911 calls, has lost 131 officers — which Arradondo says is the staffing equivalent of an entire precinct, WCCO reports.
Overtime hours due to staffing shortages has doubled since last year, finance director Robin McPherson told the council. The department also eliminated several units, like some community response teams and those focused on gangs and weapons.
“We are right now operating very much one dimensionally, ensuring that we have enough officers to respond to violent crimes as well as property crimes that may be in progress,” Arradondo said.
The budget discussion is almost exactly two weeks from the city’s election that will decide the fate of the police department as it is known today. There is a ballot proposal that, if approved by voters, would remove the police department from the city charter replace it with a department of public safety . It’s a move that proponents say is a comprehensive public health approach to public safety.
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Watch expanded coverage of IACP 2025 as the POLICE Magazine team walks the aisles at the expo and shares what we found interesting on display for chiefs from across the country and around the world this week in Denver, Colorado.
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Free officer-wellness training comes to Las Vegas Sept. 22–25: The Wounded Blue’s 5th Annual National Law Enforcement Survival Summit opens registration.
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When floodwaters overturned a vehicle in rural New Mexico, Officer Walker Eby risked his life—crawling over raging currents on a ladder—to rescue a woman, her child, and their dog.
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Birmingham, Alabama, hosted the 2025 World Police & Fire Games, and Ahmedabad, India, has been announced as the host city for 2029.
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The memorandum says D.C. is a Federal city and violent crime “prevents Federal workers from safely performing their duties and prevents Americans from safely accessing their elected officials.”
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Chief Darin Schierbaum said the new uniforms are made of a lightweight fabric with four-way stretch, UV protection, and ventilation to make officers more comfortable in the Atlanta heat.
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