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