MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department is showing early signs of recovery after a significant exodus of officers in the years following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
The department’s sworn ranks, which dropped from 920 officers in March 2019 to a low of 560 in March 2024, have grown for the first time in six years, reaching 588 officers by mid-May, according to department data provided to Axios.
The city’s charter mandates a minimum of 713 officers — a threshold Minneapolis has not met since 2021.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the department is beginning to reverse course.
“We netted positive last year, and we’re going to net substantially positive this year,” Mayor Jacob Frey told Axios.
To support staffing goals, city leaders in 2024 approved a new union contract that included a historic pay raise. Officials have pointed to the rise in post-2020 workers’ compensation claims and declining interest in law enforcement careers as contributing factors in the department’s personnel shortfall. Nearly a quarter of the current force is also expected to reach retirement age within the next three years, O’Hara said.
Homicide investigators and other officers say the smaller force has been navigating a challenging workload amid increased public scrutiny.
“I heard a really senior cop tell me the other day, ‘I’m just sick of being the bad guy,’” Sgt. Andrew Schroeder told Axios during a ridealong in 2024.
May 25 marks five years since Floyd’s death, an event that reshaped the city’s public safety approach. On May 21, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would seek to dismiss a federal consent decree in Minneapolis, though the department will remain under a state-level reform agreement.
O’Hara said the focus remains on sustainable reform and rebuilding community trust.
“The members of this police department have been through an unbelievable amount of change and of trauma, just like the residents of this community, and I think they know things needed to change here,” he said.
