Minneapolis mayor defends millions spent in police overtime amid 2026's crisis events
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke with reporters Thursday with the aim of clearing the air about the police department's current overtime pay situation.
WCCO reported in January that officers worked at least $3 million over budget during Operation Metro Surge.
Frey says the current overtime pay has been cheaper than operating with 2020's staffing level of 888 officers. Now at roughly 630 officers, the mayor says getting back to that level remains one of his goals.
But during the surge, officers worked at least $3 million over that budget. Last year, they spent nearly 14 times that amount.
"There have been some narratives that have been both accurate and also slightly inaccurate," Frey said. "There was this narrative out there that the overtime spent was unnecessary. Largely we found that to be false."
Frey, sitting alongside the assistant chief of operations and deputy chief finance officer, said a team analyzed MPD's budget assuming they hadn't experienced elevated attrition after 2020.
"Even with the overtime hours we conducted, we still weren't able to get back remotely close to the hours of service required," Frey said.
The city claims current overtime overage is near $23 million. This year, MPD budgeted $2.3 million for overtime.
"We were drastically undercounting the dollar figure necessary in the budget to complete those overtime hours," Frey said. "I would make the same decision every day of the week and twice on Sundays to have officers available on standby ready to go then not have them available."
Frey is set to present his budget proposal to councilmembers next week. With concerns of raised property taxes or layoffs within the city, WCCO asked if he would comment on how the analysis could impact it.
"I can't yet. We're working on those decisions for the remainder of this week," Frey said.
MPD says its officers handled more than 50,000 calls in December, January and February.
"Having a police officer both costs more than it used to cost, and the work we're asking them to do is more extensive," Frey said.
The city council will meet next Thursday.
