01 October 2022

Minneapolis Has Fewer Cops, Longer 911 Response

I can't even pretend to be shocked. Why would anyone want to be a police officer in Minneapolis? MPD reports longer response times to 911 emergency calls - KSTP.com Eyewitness News

Last week, interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman told a City Council committee the average 911 response time for officers citywide is now eight and a half minutes, which includes high-priority calls known as Priority 1 calls.

In 2021 they had budget for 496 patrol officers. Today they have only 407 actively on patrol.

There is absolutely no mention in the article of Defund the Police, or any reference to retirement/resignation. And no mention of recruiting efforts. Why? Because all of those topics would make the city administration look like idiots. That is my guess, anyway.

If the only information we had about policing in Minneapolis came from this story, we would be left to conclude that the number of officers dropped from 496 to 407 due to random events. Were there actions taken by the city to vilify police? When did they happen? What was the timing relative to the resignations/retirements? There is no mention of any of that.

There is also no mention of the number or the type of calls that patrol officers are responding to. Has crime gone up or down? Has serious crime become more frequent? Who knows? Not the readers of this piece of journalism.

UPDATE: I forgot to say that there is also no mention of any changes in policy around cash bail. Because that is also not relevant to understanding any of this. Not if you are a journalist in Minnesota, anyway.

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