By Cari Spencer, Minnesota Public Radio News

Minneapolis police officials on Thursday outlined plans for the department’s proposed budget for next year, $230 million, a 6 percent increase over the current budget.

In his presentation to the Minneapolis City Council’s budget committee, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the department’s current staffing of 578 officers is still well below the budgeted staffing level, despite a 45 percent increase in applications compared to all of last year.

This year, more than 1,000 potential agents applied, resulting in 60 new hires. Council Member Emily Koski recalled an earlier budget presentation from the Office of Community Safety that proposed half a million dollars for MPD recruitment efforts – building on the $1 million campaign launched in spring.

“I don’t think we really have a problem convincing people to apply,” Koski said. “I would rather spend that money figuring out what we need internally to make sure these good candidates get through the process.”

Koski said the city needs to think creatively about ways to invite some of these candidates into other roles, “so if they want to become officers, that doesn’t preclude them from working within our public safety ecosystem and learn more about the city and then transition.” .”

O’Hara said “getting more people across the finish line” is a priority. But even then, he added, some new recruits take at least a year to be educated and trained before they can begin patrolling city streets, while officers continue to retire. Thirty officers retired this year.

“Hiring more people for sworn positions doesn’t immediately give us an edge on the street like we need,” O’Hara said. “And we need to hire a lot more people just to keep up with normal attrition.” »

The proposed budget includes 31 additional positions within the department, including two additional civilian investigators. These are non-sworn personnel authorized in the new police contract to help manage caseloads and potentially free up sworn officers for other duties.

O’Hara told the committee he specifically wants to see one of those positions handle domestic violence cases, as domestic violence investigation staffing has decreased since 2020.

Council member Robin Wonsley pushed for more civilian investigators in the budget as the department faces a backlog of cases. She said two civilian investigators are not enough and is proposing a budget amendment to reduce the backlog.

“This new contract cost taxpayers nearly $9 million, with the new staff flexibility touted as a crucial reform that was worth it,” Wonsley recently wrote in a newsletter. “This amendment would further leverage this reform by adding more civilian investigators to MPD, who can help improve case closure and resolution rates.”

O’Hara said in his presentation to council members that investigations staffing is more than half what it was before 2020.