Minneapolis police chief seeks front office reorganization

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo is moving to reorganize his command staff, changes he says will make the force a better one "long after I'm gone."

As part of the reorganization, Arradondo would create a stand-alone chief of staff position to oversee the department's community outreach efforts and ensure officers uphold the principles of procedural justice, which emphasize respectful interactions with the public.

The position — with an annual salary ranging from $140,850 to $155,114 — would also oversee, among other things, the homeless outreach initiative, background-investigations unit and community service officer program, he said. The announcement came at Thursday's meeting of the Executive Committee, which voted in favor of the proposal and sent it to the full council for final approval.

"Long after I'm gone, the goal is to make sure that this is our north compass, make sure that this is what's going to be guiding our police department moving forward," he told the committee.

The changes would give command of the department's 392 patrol officers back to one of Arradondo's three deputy chiefs. Previously, those duties fell to Assistant Chief Mike Kjos. It wasn't immediately clear where Deputy Chief Art Knight, who served as chief of staff, will land.

Arradondo is limited in increasing the size of his command staff — including promoting more women — by a state law that caps the number of deputy chiefs that he can appoint.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 • @ StribJany