Crime and Public Safety
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey asked the City Council for about $500,000 for extra help out on the streets.
The money will be used to potentially partner with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and Metro Transit Police for approximately 40 officers to work with a depleted MPD in the final weeks of the year.
The chief pointed out that no contracts have been signed at this point, but the idea is to form joint enforcement teams to crack down on the surge of violence across Minneapolis. The city has seen about 75 murders, hundreds of shootings, and a rash of carjackings at an unprecedented rate.
Initially, the request was met with some fierce opposition from a council that’s been trying to re-imagine policing since the deadly arrest of George Floyd.
“I would really like a better answer about where the $185 million has gone because it just seems like it didn’t go into the outcomes that we would’ve expected, and I’m having a hard time seeing how you can’t find it within your department,” Fletcher said.
“I have 74 people who are no longer alive in the city because they’ve been killed. I’ve got almost 500 people who have been shot and wounded in this city. We can go back and forth on the $185 million [annual MPD budget], but that is not stopping the bloodshed that is occurring in our city,” Chief Arradondo said. “We can talk about reimagining policing; I am talking about what is necessary today in this city, and we need extra resources.”
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Article URL : https://www.fox9.com/news/minneapolis-committee-narrowly-approves-extra-funding-for-mpd