Minneapolis police herald recruitment efforts as applications up 45% compared to last year

After a steep staffing decline over the past four years, the Minneapolis Police Department is seeing its first signs of recovery.

Applications have jumped 45% in 2024, partly driven by an influx of lateral hires from other Minnesota law enforcement agencies amid a citywide effort to rebuild the department's depleted ranks.

Mayor Jacob Frey and Chief Brian O'Hara credit a monthslong recruitment campaign that flooded social media with ads asking young people to "Imagine Yourself" as a public servant, as well as targeted outreach from the department's recruitment team. Handpicked police liaisons traveled all over the state and country this year, including to some Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to find interested candidates.

For the first time since 2018, the police force is on track to end the year with higher numbers than it started with. Eight more, to be exact.

"I'm not saying things are perfect, but it's not a miserable situation," O'Hara said in an interview Thursday night ahead of MPD's annual promotional ceremony in north Minneapolis. "I feel like there is finally hope."

When O'Hara took over nearly two years ago, the staffing shortage had become so dire advisers cautioned he may need to close a precinct. Current officers, plagued by low morale, strongly discouraged friends and family from working there.

"That's not the case today," he said, noting nearly a dozen immediate relatives of veteran cops have since joined the ranks, either as community service officers, lateral transfers or new recruits.

It's a promising turnaround in a city that still bears the physical and emotional scars of George Floyd's murder under the knee of a former Minneapolis officer — and is negotiating a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department over its findings the department engaged in a pattern of racist policing practices.

Hundreds of police officers have quit since 2020 — many taking costly settlements for post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed after the riots — supercharging a wave of attrition and retirements police leaders had long warned about. That mass exodus left Minneapolis with one of the lowest ratios of officers to residents among major American cities.

Police ranks hit an all-time low of 560 in March, down from over 900 in 2019, according to payroll data.

Yet, when the "Imagine Yourself" campaign launched this spring in an effort to rebrand the badge, O'Hara expressed optimism that recruitment was starting to turn a corner, and predicted Minneapolis would become "the greatest law enforcement comeback story in America."

Under the leadership of Lt. KeHeung Anderson, MPD's internal recruitment team has developed a more aggressive strategy aimed at flooding local colleges and career fairs with energetic officers who can appeal to ambitious youth. They've flown as far as San Diego and driven to International Falls hoping to attract diverse talent with a desire to serve. His team is now seeking to break down barriers inside Minneapolis high schools, which have grown especially wary of the department in recent years.

"Recruitment is a long game," Anderson said. "We're trying to cast a broad net."

But the best candidates are often referrals from current officers, who spread the word that there are more promotional opportunities at one of the state's largest agencies.

Last year, the city received 697 police applications. MPD surpassed 1,014 as of late August.

City leaders expect to see another surge in applications this fall in the wake of a historic police union contract, which guarantees a nearly 22% pay raise for veteran officers by next summer and boosts starting salaries for rookies to more than $90,000 a year — putting Minneapolis among the top five highest-paid departments in the state.

"The dynamic has changed entirely from a couple of years ago," Frey told the Star Tribune. "We got the police contract [approved]. Morale is up. Officers are feeling better about the jobs that they're doing, and people are audibly, verbally, saying 'thank you.'"

Court-mandated reforms, including one prompted by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, don't appear to be scaring off potential candidates.

Before 2020, MPD averaged approximately two lateral transfers per year from neighboring police departments. There have been 10 in 2024, records show.

Some recruiters have cast these pending reforms as a sort of silver lining, a rare chance for law enforcement officers to help rebuild the department – and community trust – from the ground up.

"The way in which we came to have that [consent decree] wasn't something many of us are proud of," said Assistant Chief Christopher Gaiters. "But I know we have the opportunity to make this place a whole lot better."

With 570 current sworn officers, the department hovers just above that of the St. Paul Police Department, an agency that serves roughly 120,000 fewer residents.

Another 140 officers are eligible to retire this year. It remains unclear whether the pay raise will incentivize them to stay.

Officers promoted

On Thursday night, more than a dozen police officers added extra stripes to their uniforms, signifying new supervisory roles.

During a ceremony at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, O'Hara thanked those individuals for sticking with the department, despite its myriad of challenges, and for stepping up into leadership.

Among those promoted to lieutenant were: Anderson, from the recruitment team; John Haugland, Adam Lepinski, Renee Lewis, Elizabeth Mota, Justin Reisdorfer, Bryce Robinson, Kurtis Schoonover and Sherral Schmidt, president of police union.

Sergeants and lieutenants hold "undeniable power over the culture of this agency," O'Hara said, because their actions — or lack thereof – set the tone.

"As a boss, you encourage what you tolerate," O'Hara said, advising they foster a professional environment where subordinates are encouraged to call out bad behavior among colleagues. He asked that they be especially conscious of their own actions, which are under more scrutiny than ever.

"The Minneapolis Police Department will only be as good as our worst supervisor."