Catherine Rusoff
Minneapolis — On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is rushing to a priority call.
“I try to show the officers that I’m here to support them,” O’Hara told CBS News.
O’Hara says his department is short more than 200 officers and has lost 40% of its police force in the last four years.
“It’s amazing,” O’Hara said. “It’s not just that we lost 40% of the force, they have faced the highest levels of crime and violence, in some categories, that the city has ever seen.”
Minneapolis is experiencing a rise in assaults and nearly three dozen shootings per month. Officers were subject to some mandatory overtime.
Large-scale police staffing shortages are not limited to Minneapolis. They take place in cities big and small, from coast to coast.
The Philadelphia Police Department is short 1,170 officers, the agency told CBS News. The Chicago Police Department is short more than 1,140 officers, the department disclosed, while the Los Angeles Police Department is short more than 470 officers.
But in Minneapolis, the obstacle is more than just labor, It’s trust too. Almost four years later the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the department has cleaned house of its top brass.
O’Hara was hired as chief at the end of 2022 from Newark, New Jersey – where he served as deputy mayor – as the department seeks to change its culture.
But not everyone thinks there has been enough change.
“I don’t think the department was transformed by choice,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a community activist in Minneapolis for nearly two decades. “I think he was transformed by necessity.”
Armstrong says O’Hara still hasn’t rid the department of all officers who are too physical or too focused on people of color.
“It’s unfortunate that they’re down 40%, but that’s their fault, right? The handwriting was on the wall regarding the conduct of many Minneapolis police officers,” Armstrong said.
Like many other departments, Minneapolis offers hiring bonuses to new recruits. But O’Hara says the problem runs deeper than money. In an editorial from February in the Star Tribune, he asked the question, “Do we expect too much from police officers?”
“Well, people always expect perfection, for sure,” O’Hara told CBS News.
As he struggles to rebuild the force, O’Hara emphasizes to his officers that summer usually means an increase in crime.
“It’s getting hotter and staffing is definitely a concern,” he told his team on a recent call.
Scott MacFarlane
