The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has failed to meet his legal duty to hire more police officers or to demonstrate why he hasn’t done so. This decision is a big win for a group of eight city residents who sued the mayor and the City Council over the huge spike in crime that followed the push to defund the police.
This ruling was issued on Monday by Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Monday that, at the end of May, the city had 621 officers on its payroll, “including 39 who were on a ‘continuous leave’ lasting two weeks or longer.”
The city charter requires a ratio of 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents of Minneapolis, according to Fox News. Based on the results of the 2020 census, that translates into a minimum of 731 officers. Since the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and the riots that immediately followed, over 300 officers have left the Minneapolis Police Department, Fox reported.
Although the City Council has allocated sufficient funds to support 770 sworn officers in the city’s budget — overfunding the force — the mayor has failed to hire enough police officers to meet the minimum threshold, according to Fox.