Minneapolis police overtime funding passed by council committee

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and other MPD officials spoke before the city’s Public Health and Safety Committee to ask for $5 million to cover rising overtime costs in 2021.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Minneapolis City Council committee approved a resolution to address police overtime expenses Thursday.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and other MPD officials spoke before the city’s Public Health and Safety Committee to ask for $5 million to cover rising overtime costs in 2021.

That funding would come from the public safety staffing reserve.

With staffing down, MPD says overtime demands are high. Minneapolis Police project overtime costs to reach more than $9 million this year.

"The overtime costs to fill 387,000 hours is approximately $30 million. And so $5 million will fill approximately 16.6 percent of the capacity loss," said Arradondo.

With 60 percent of officers on disability leave, there is a total of 692 total sworn personnel in the Minneapolis Police Department as of May 31. That’s down about 25 percent compared to a year ago.

The measure will go before the full council next week for a vote.