Minneapolis City Council committee OKs study of police off-duty fees

Minneapolis City Council members have begun making moves toward recouping some of the costs of allowing police officers to use squad cars and other city resources to work for private businesses when they’re off duty.

A council committee voted Monday to study the public cost of the Police Department’s off-duty program, where private businesses hire officers to provide security. It’s the first step toward charging the businesses for the cost to the city in things like wear and tear to squad cars. If the full City Council signs off on the proposal, the report would be due by May 1, when the full council could consider adding the new fees next year.

The Minneapolis Police Department allows officers to work security for private entities such as bars, clubs, sports teams and construction companies. The side gigs can pay up to hundreds of dollars per hour, and officers are often paid in cash, according to a 2019 city audit. The officers use MPD vehicles, uniforms, weapons and city liability insurance while doing the security work.

The Administration and Enterprise Oversight Committee voted to study the cost of vehicle use, uniforms, liability insurance and administrative costs.

Such side jobs came under scrutiny in 2017, when former MPD officer Mohamed Noor worked a seven-hour shift moonlighting as a security guard before beginning a 10-hour MPD shift on the night he shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

In January 2020, Mayor Jacob Frey launched an off-duty task force that met twice, and then dissolved amid the pandemic and resulting drop in off-duty work.

The issue came into public focus again in 2020, when a Latino nightclub owner said former MPD officer Derek Chauvin — who was convicted of murdering George Floyd – did off-duty work at the club where Floyd had worked as a bouncer. Later that year, the Minneapolis City Council stopped requiring off-duty officers at city-licensed events.

The U.S. Department of Justice said MPD’s off-duty work system was poorly managed and undermined supervision in its 2023 report on the department’s policing practices.

Council Member Robin Wonsley sponsored the proposal to study off-duty work, calling the system “fundamentally broken” and inequitable. The directive requires the city attorney to draft an ordinance to charge fees for city costs — which council members likely would take up next year.

Council Member Linea Palmisano said Monday she’d rather bring all off-duty work in house, as other police departments do.

“This is just nibbling around the edges, and I’d rather attack off-duty work straight on,” she said.

A 1997 court injunction restricts how much the city can manage off-duty work, and only allows major reforms to be enacted through the collective-bargaining process. Palmisano said the city may have to go back to court and challenge the 1997 injunction in order to make changes.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara — who has said the off-duty system is ripe with potential for corruption — has started tracking when and where officers are working, Palmisano said.

Council President Elliott Payne, who also sponsored the proposal, said the Frey administration has said the appropriate place for deep transformational police reform is outside of the police labor contract.

Frey said in an interview he supports gathering information on the topic, but said council members should work with the administration on policy and strategy and include lawyers in conversations. Off-duty work is one of the more intractable, difficult issues facing MPD, Frey said. Streamlining the process would provide more oversight and make the process more fair and equitable to both police officers and businesses, and ensure officers aren’t overworked, he said.