Brian O’Hara is the Minneapolis Chief of Police. His department down from the more than 900 sworn officers that it employed at the time of George Floyd’s death in May 2020. O’Hara continues to demoralize the department with his lack of leadership, his inane antics, and his obvious interest in finding another job elsewhere as soon as possible.
I wrote about him, most recently, in “Rolling O’Hara gathers Moss again” and criticized the Star Tribune for taking no interest in the department’s short-staffing.
How far down is it? Yesterday I spoke with Minneapolis police union president (Sergeant) Sherral Schmidt. She told me she had just looked at the numbers the evening before. The department currently employs a total of 564 officers (539 through the rank of lieutenant). Officers on leave are included in the total.
Mayor Frey has been advertising the number of 600 sworn officers and claiming it as “an important milestone.” Schmidt stated bluntly that this assertion is false. Unfortunately, Frey’s chief competitor in the pending election would aggravate a bad situation. One might think that the coming election would make Schmidt’s statement of the case newsworthy.
The city is legally obligated to maintain a force of 731 officers, but it isn’t close. In my most recent post on O’Hara, I stated that number stands at 580. I erred on the upside.
Minneapolis commercial real estate values have crashed. This week Mayor Frey announced that he seeks a 7.8 percent increase in property taxes to support his proposed $2 billion budget, which incorporates a variety of cuts to mitigate the proposed tax increase. The proposed 7.8 percent increase in the city’s property tax levy on top of last year’s 6.8 percent increase.
Less for more is the underlying theme. The proposed budget would eliminate what Schmidt referred to as “critical staffing overtime.” She stated that the elimination of the current overtime staffing will result in the reduction of “extra [police] bodies every month” in every precinct.
My linked post on O’Hara comments on his use of racist demagogue Spike Moss at two police training sessions this year. Schmidt told me that O’Hara was asked by officers at both sessions, “Are you gonna be here?” She told me he gave a political non-answer to the question.
Schmidt’s update on current staffing levels and related comments should be of interest to Minneapolis residents and to those of us who have to venture downtown on occasion. It should also be of interest to reporters and readers of the hometown newspaper, but apparently not.
