Minneapolis Police Chief Proposes Adding More Officers To Force

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo made his case Thursday for getting more officers on the street.

Chief Arradondo spoke before the Minneapolis City Council for two hours, expressing the need to add 14 officers to help combat crime and to help improve 911 response times.

"Through trust, accountability and professional service, the MPD's daily goal is to provide for the public safety of all of our city," Arradondo said.

The Chief is requesting 14 additional sworn officers, which falls in line with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's budget proposal for 2020. The number is less than Arradondo's original call to add 400 more officers to the force by 2025, but Frey said that would not be doable in the budget.

Still, council member Lisa Goodman said she thought they should consider hiring more officers.

"I think 14 is probably not enough, and anyone who wants to work with me to figure out other things that we can change in the mayor's budget to add to 14, to add more neighborhood outreach officers, I'm there for it," Goodman said.

The meeting comes after new stats were released from Minneapolis police regarding an uptick in crime, particularly downtown. Security video shows recent violent robberies that took place in the 1st Precinct in August. Robberies in downtown are up more than 50% compared to this time last year. Police arrested 16 people in those recent downtown robberies.

The 14 officers will include eight neighborhood outreach, three in the traffic unit and three investigators. The next committee meeting will be held Sept. 23.

A survey out this week showed strong support from Minneapolis residents to beef up the police force.

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