- HR records obtained by Insider show 174 fewer officers on active duty in
Minneapolis than in May 2020. - Eighty-two of those officers are on leave from the department, the records show.
- "We are actively recruiting and getting many qualified candidates," an MPD spokesman told Insider.
One year after
City human resources records obtained by Insider show there were 898 sworn MPD officers on active duty on May 23, 2020, two days before then-officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes and killed him.
By April 24, the most recent roster update tabulated by the city, the number of active-duty officers had dropped to 727.
John Elder, an MPD spokesman, told Insider he didn't want to speculate about why the police department has shrunk in the year since Floyd's death. But he said the city is not happy with the reduced force and is focusing on recruitment.
"We are actively recruiting and getting many qualified candidates. Like most every department across the country, numbers of applicants is [sic] down however we continue to get many good candidates," Elder told Insider in an email. "We just graduated a class of recruits last Friday."
He noted that some officers left on disability or departed to seek out a different patrol environment.
"Some leave because they have reached 'that' age," he wrote, adding: "Heck, I turned 56 last week and am eyeing my departure."
In addition to its 724 active-duty officers, the department currently has 82 officers that are employed but on leave, according to the records. The number of officers on leave at any given time since last May ranged from about a dozen to as high as 152, around New Year's Day.
In February, Chief Medaria Arradondo expressed his concern to the Minneapolis City Council that there were far fewer officers patrolling the streets than anticipated, noting that 105 officers had left the department in 2020. MPR News reported that was more than double the department's average attrition rate.
"This presents operational challenges for me as chief," Arradondo said at the meeting, according to MPR
The city's most recent roster update showed the trend of officers leaving the department has continued.
The reduction in force came alongside a wave of anti-police brutality protests and police reform initiatives that swept the country after Floyd's death. At the same time, it became more mainstream to question police use of force and call for the abolition or defunding of law enforcement.
In April, a jury in Hennepin County, Minnesota convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter. He is now awaiting sentencing on June 25, and faces imprisonment of up to 40 years.
Chauvin and the three other former officers at the scene of Floyd's death have also been indicted on federal civil rights charges.