The Minneapolis Police Department is seeing a surge in the number of experienced officers joining the force. 

The need for more officers in Minneapolis is drastic, losing hundreds following the murder of George Floyd — the fewer officers has led to longer 911 response times, officer burnout, to less focus on investigations with investigators needing to be on patrol. 

But progress to rebuild is being made — the department reports gaining 38 officers last year, including 22 “lateral hires,” which are officers that join from a different agency. That nearly two dozen is more than four times the number the year before.  

MPD lateral hires, according to MPD.

• 2016-2020: 0
• 2021: 3
• 2022: 8
• 2023: 5
• 2024: 22
• 2025: 3 (as of March 27)

“I was looking for some different leadership,” Heather Starry, who joined MPD as a lateral hire from a metro police department in 2024, said. “It’s been nothing but positive here, and I think that really builds morale.”

For patrol officer Liban Ibrahim, who also joined in 2024 from the Metro Transit Police Department, it was the police chief that drew him to Minneapolis. 

“I saw the changes that [were] happening here after Chief O’Hara got here,” Ibrahim said. 

And William Nkata, joining from another metro department, also wanted to be part of the change. 

“Even after everything that the city went through, I felt like was still a good city. There still is good in the city,” Nkata added. 

The frequency in lateral hires happening around the state is somewhat new for the industry, according to Jim Mortenson, who is with one of the state’s largest unions — the Law Enforcement Labor Services, which doesn’t represent MPD officers.  

“Sometimes chasing it because it’s leadership issues, sometimes chasing it for geography issues, sometimes chasing it for financial issues,” Mortenson said of lateral hires. 

He adds, though, that it’s not a long-term solution for a statewide issue. 

“We’re currently a little over 1,000 officers down in the state,” Mortenson said. “We’ve got too many people that are no longer in this profession, and we don’t have enough people coming into the profession.”

Minneapolis needs to build their force back up for many reasons, including to fulfill the city charter, which requires 731 officers — the department says they’re 148 short, as of this March.

MPD also says there are nearly 60 Community Service Officers and Cadets working to become officers — those two avenues take longer to hit the streets compared to lateral hires.