Minneapolis police reform costs: Millions of dollars and dozens of new hires

The dollars, cents and people required to remake policing in Minneapolis are coming into focus.

On Monday, the City Council formally took up Mayor Jacob Frey's proposed 2024 budget. It's the first spending plan that pins taxpayer costs to the specific jobs required to comply with court orders to end racist and unconstitutional policing.

Big picture: It will cost $16 million next year and $11 million the year after — and millions more annually for years to come.

Specifically, the mayor's proposal calls for $7.6 million in 2024 and 34 full-time positions across four city departments. That's all new spending and new positions. It's lawyers, IT people, workers to pore over body-worn camera footage, counselors for cops, trainers for cops, trainers for trainers and a bunch of overtime.

Those are hardly the only costs associated with the effort, which will be largely prescribed by a court-approved settlement with the state Department of Human Rights and an anticipated court-approved consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that has yet to emerge.

The city has set aside $8 million in a reserve fund for public safety reform, much of which could pay for changes not specifically required by court orders but supported by the city.

Other costs, yet to be detailed, will include one-time expenditures such as computers, computer software, contracts with outside experts and office space. Also: a $1.5 million budget for the salary and possibly staff for someone — a yet to be named "independent evaluator" or "monitor" — expected to monitor everything on behalf of both the federal and state courts to make sure Minneapolis is following through.

The city has set aside a combined $5 million in 2023 and 2024 toward some of those costs. But more spending will now come at a faster clip.

The $7.6 million proposed for next year includes costs that, if ultimately adopted by the council, will likely ensure close to $6 million in new annual spending for years to come.

"Change isn't cheap," Frey said in announcing his budget last month. "And change isn't optional."

In other words, whether you call it police reform or compliance with a court order, much of the work is strictly prescribed.

Here's a look at some of those costs, and the positions they'll create.

Police

$6.4 million

28 positions

The biggest concentration of manpower toward the effort will be borne by the Police Department, which is forming a 28-member "implementation team."

These aren't cops with guns walking a beat, but rather an array of workers with specialized tasks — and workloads that can't be absorbed within existing staffing, which is already well below required levels, police officials say.

"Most of the titles here are self-explanatory," Assistant Police Chief Chris Gaiters told the City Council Budget Committee Monday.

They include:

For perspective, the entire Police Department proposed 2024 budget is about $218 million.

Information technology

$495,000

One position, plus contracts

Taking all the data the Police Department collects, plus collecting more data, and analyzing it all to ensure, for example, that force isn't being used disproportionately against suspects based solely on race requires IT support.

Will the department's existing software even work for that sort of thing?

"We really just won't know until we complete the assessment," Chief Information Officer Paul Cameron said Monday, referring to one of the first IT tasks: hiring an outside firm to answer the question.

The IT department's proposal also includes hiring one new worker with a $117,000 annual starting salary and likely calling on existing personnel to shoulder some of the work.

Civil rights

$406,000

Three positions

Investigations into police conduct need to move faster, according to the settlement agreement between the city and the state Department of Human Rights. The proposed solution: hire three more "case investigators" at an average annual starting salary of $81,000 in the Police Conduct Review Division of the city's Civil Rights Department.

City attorney

$365,000

Two positions

Ultimately, complying with court orders is a legal requirement. Three city attorneys are working on it, but two more are needed at an average starting salary of $137,000.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the amount the city has dedicated to a reserve fund for public safety reform, and the budget years in which the city has already set aside $5 million in spending to fund work related to the settlement agreement.