Minneapolis is required to fund 731 sworn officers, but hiring challenges since 2020’s civil unrest have suppressed staffing. Through the middle of 2024, the police force was still on the decline. But that trend reversed by year’s end, O’Hara said. There are now more than 600 sworn officers, and this week the police academy launched its largest class since the 1990s.
Still, the 12th Ward also falls entirely within MPD’s 3rd Precinct, its headquarters torched by protesters after George Floyd’s murder — and its replacement isn’t expected to open until 2026.
Most of the time when 12th Ward residents call the police, officers travel from beyond the borders of the ward’s eight neighborhoods, or they’re making their way from downtown, said MPD spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten. Third Precinct police are still being housed in the City of Lakes building at 309 2nd Av. S. as the city continues developing their new headquarters, the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, at 2633 Minnehaha Av.
“I don’t imagine car thefts are reported, and vandalism; there isn’t really any point in reporting,” said Standish neighborhood resident Tim Bonham. ”Our police are homeless. They’ve got to go downtown, so getting a response from them is very slow, unless it’s somebody standing there shooting."
Three garages on his block were broken into last summer but the crimes were never reported, Bonham said, because his neighbors didn’t believe police could do anything about it and their insurance rates would only increase.
“So if you have that happening, no wonder the crime rate is going down,” he said.