Members of the Community Review Board pressed MMPD representatives for data on recruitment, training-class demographics and overall staffing at the October meeting.

A board member asked whether the department is meeting a national staffing benchmark (roughly 2.5 officers per 1,000 population). Captain Cottrell said he did not have the exact ratio available at the meeting but that the department is budgeted for about 1,720 sworn full-time-equivalent officers. "As far as that's the ratio is, I don't have that stat on me, at this moment. I can get that and send it to you," Captain Cottrell said.

Board members raised concerns about outreach and representation in the academy. Captain Cottrell said the department is prioritizing a goal to reach 30% women in training classes by 2030 to raise overall representation over time and reported the current proportion of women in the department is about 13%. "Currently, I believe we're resting at about 13%," he said.

Board members and the captain discussed recruitment strategies including community-based outreach and tapping local universities. The captain said the department had previously done community recruitment and that the department's budgeted sworn headcount and recent retirements have affected short-term staffing.

On data reporting, board members asked whether the complaint intake portal captures complainant race and ethnicity. Staff said the portal includes fields that can capture that information but that the particular monthly status report circulated to the board did not include the breakdown; staff said research could produce a report showing those counts.

Board members requested that the captain and recruitment/background staff provide staffing-ratio comparisons and training-class demographic reports for future meetings.