Minneapolis Police present $229.3M 2026 budget; chiefs warn staffing and compliance strains

Chief Brian O’Hara and MPD finance director Vicki Troswick presented the police department’s mayor‑recommended $229,300,000 budget to the Minneapolis City Council Budget Committee on Sept. 15, 2025, emphasizing staffing shortages, settlement‑agreement compliance work and a set of proposed budget reductions intended to avoid layoffs.

The presentation matters because the police department’s budget is one of the city’s largest line items and its staffing and contract choices affect 911 response times, investigative capacity and settlement‑agreement compliance under state and federal supervision. The department described performance measures, evidence processing volumes, hiring activity and a plan that holds five vacant civilian positions as part of mayoral reductions.

MPD said the priority‑1 response goal is seven minutes citywide; the median response time for priority‑1 calls shown in the department’s materials was 8 minutes, 29 seconds, unchanged from the prior year and above the 7‑minute target. Chief O’Hara said the department currently relies on overtime and short‑term contracts to maintain minimum staffing while recruiting and training new officers and community service officers.

Troswick presented the financial overview, saying the mayor‑recommended 2026 all‑funds budget is $229.3 million, of which roughly 98% is general fund. She said internal service charges (IT, fleet, rent) account for about $36 million and the city’s liability insurance allocation decreased by roughly $4.8 million from the prior year, producing an overall small net reduction of about $322,000 from 2025 to 2026. MPD said grant and special revenues (CDBG, auto‑theft grant, JAG, Paul Coverdell) make up about 2% of the total budget and support specific programs.

Troswick and the chief described proposed personnel and non‑personnel changes that would not include layoffs: five vacant FTEs would be held — two case investigators added in 2025 that were never filled, one community navigator (the department currently has nine navigators plus one manager), one police support technician and one office support specialist — and the largest single reduction would be a change to critical‑staffing overtime (CSOT) costing about $3.6 million in savings by reducing pay from a double time calculation to standard overtime rates in planning projections. Other reductions cited included a supplies reduction (roughly $463,000), a training reduction ($200,000) and a $150,000 reduction related to mounted patrol funding; MPD stated it has not received private donations to sustain mounted patrol for 2026.

Committee members asked detailed follow‑ups. Council Member Cashman and others pressed why two civilian investigator positions added in 2025 are being held vacant; Chief O’Hara and staff said the goal was to avoid layoffs while minimizing impacts on settlement‑agreement compliance and that the vacant positions came from recommendations within departmental components. Chief O’Hara repeatedly emphasized investigative capacity as a people problem: “people. I mean, it's people,” when asked what would be needed to increase investigative throughput.

Council members also requested follow‑up memos and data: a 5‑year hiring breakdown (later provided by MPD as 12 lateral hires, 21 recruits, 69 cadets, 41 CSOs and 9 police interns for 2025 hires), current backlog and clearance‑rate figures, and an accounting of mounted‑patrol funding and any private donations. MPD said it would provide follow‑up materials; the committee received and filed the presentation at the end of the hearing.

No budget ordinance was adopted at the meeting; the presentation and committee questions were recorded for the budget adoption process.