Police associations press Minnesota committee for recruitment, pension and discipline changes

Shane Myrie, president of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and a detective with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and Jay Henthorn, chief of police in Richfield and second vice president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, told the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Feb. 5 that Minnesota is facing a worsening recruitment and retention crisis in policing and outlined legislative priorities to address it.

The two organizations urged lawmakers to consider a mix of funding, statutory changes and administrative fixes to stabilize staffing and improve officer retention. Myrie said MPPOA membership survey data show “80% of our membership responses indicated that members are unlikely or very unlikely to recommend the profession to a family member,” and described what he called “a structural imbalance in our law enforcement career life cycle.”

The groups framed the problem around three stages: recruiting, retention and retirement. Myrie cited recent Minnesota POST licensing totals — 706 licenses granted in 2022, 670 in 2023 and 623 in 2024 — and said there are roughly 140 agencies statewide hiring and “around a thousand peace officers short” statewide. He also told senators that Minnesota has “over 10,000 licensed peace officers” and more than 2,000 officers eligible for retirement in the next few years; he said the combined police and fire pension plan has more…