Judge orders city of Minneapolis to hire more police officers

A Hennepin County District Court judge has ordered the city of Minneapolis to hire more police officers. This comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of residents.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Hennepin County District Court judge has ordered the city of Minneapolis to hire more police officers.

According to an order filed Thursday, the city council and Mayor Jacob Frey are ordered to "immediately take any and all necessary action to ensure that they fund a police force."

Residents file lawsuit against Minneapolis over decreased police staffing levels

Some are calling it an "exodus" as more officers within the Minneapolis Police Department look to take medical leave or leave the department permanently. As the staffing levels decrease, some concerned residents are filing a lawsuit against city.

That means the city must employ 730 sworn officers by June 30 of next year.

According to the Upper Midwest Law Center, the city of Minneapolis project only 669 sworn officers as of June 1, 2022.

The people who filed the lawsuit are residents of Minneapolis’ Hawthorne and Jordan neighborhoods. They are Cathy Spann, Sondra Samuels, Don Samuels, Audua Pugh, Jonathan Lundberg, Aimee Lundberg, Georgianna Yantos and Juliee Oden.

Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Councilmember, said he and his co-petitioners demanded enough active-duty officers to patrol the city’s streets.

"We have made the emotional appeal," said Samuels. "We have demonstrated the statistical uptick and now this is the legal action we are exercising because it seems as if the City Council cannot hear us and doesn’t feel what we feel."

The City Attorney’s Office is reviewing the decisions, according to a city official.