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. 

The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday will discuss a proposal to include the Cedar Riverside and Elliot Park neighborhoods in the latest round of contracts for violence interruption services.

The discussion comes as the council considers contracts to fund interrupters in several other parts of the city, but not the areas that stretch from the edge of downtown to the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus.

Ward 6 Council member Jamal Osman, who represents the area, is critical of the administration’s decision not to include these neighborhoods in the latest round of contracts.

“This program has consistently demonstrated its value, playing a crucial role in reducing violence, de-escalating conflicts and fostering trust within our community,” wrote Osman in a newsletter to constituents. “By choosing to eliminate these services, the administration is not only disregarding the evidence of their success but also abandoning the very community that has benefitted from their presence.” 

At a council committee meeting last week, Neighborhood Safety Deputy Director Lea Lakes told Osman and other members of the council that the city selected eight areas to receive violence interrupter services based on five years of crime data.

“And does that mean this specific region we’re talking about — the West Bank, Cedar Riverside area — is it showing there’s less violence and that we don’t need the program,” asked Osman.

“It indicates that it is not in the top eight areas of violence,” replied Lakes. 

Violence interrupters first came to the area in 2021 and according to officials with the Elliot Park Neighborhood, served until the contract ended in October of 2024. Osman added that the reduction in crime in his ward is a testament to the effectiveness of the program and said it doesn’t make sense to eliminate something that’s already working.

Some Ward 6 residents agree with Osman’s assessment.

Zeynab Abukar has lived in the Cedar Riverside area for the past two decades.

“When I heard about the cut, I was so stressed,” she said. “I was like, do I have to go back to, like, 20 years ago. Do we have to go back to violence?”

The proposal drew spirited debate among council members and was forwarded to Thursday’s meeting without recommendation. A few council members pointed to the lack of some violence prevention services in their wards and called for a more equitable way to cover communities in need. 

“Some of us represent wards that aren’t as privileged or don’t have as much wealth compared to other places in our city, and should be having more equitable resources into our neighborhoods to address the disparities institutional racism, the impact that violence has in some of our neighborhoods,” said Council member Jason Chavez, who represents neighborhoods in the south central and south east areas of the city.

“And that needs to be considered in this process.”

MPR News reporter Cari Spencer contributed to this story.

A man has been charged after shooting his wife and starting a fire in their Minneapolis home over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Lue Xiong, 31, was charged with one count of first-degree arson, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, threats of violence and domestic assault..

As previously reported, the Minneapolis Fire Department responded to a house fire on the 1000 block of Irving Avenue North at around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. While on scene, they notified Minneapolis police about someone with a gunshot wound in the home.

Authorities spoke to Xiong’s wife, who said that he “believed the devil was in the walls” and was acting this way because of the drugs he had used.

She said he had been using narcotics before and after the shooting and had exhibited similar behavior in the past.

Court records say that during an argument between 6 and 8 a.m., Xiong accused his wife of cheating on him and said that if she didn’t tell the truth, he would shoot her with the AK-47 he was holding. Xiong then shot her once in the leg and had their two oldest children help bandage her injury, court documents state.

The woman said she didn’t call 911 because it was a “tough situation,” and Xiong threatened to shoot officers if they responded to the house.

Later in the day, the woman was alerted by her children that there was a fire in the house that Xiong had started in the laundry room. The woman and the six children, ranging in ages from 8 months to 14 years old, then ran out of the house, the criminal complaint states.

Court records say that Xiong was placed into custody. Officers found a glass pipe with drug residue on it, a baggie with a white crystalline substance inside and a lighter.

Medical personnel determined the woman had a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her leg, and she was brought to the hospital.

Through investigation, authorities learned that in prior days, Xiong had shot the wall near a closet he thought “the demon” was going to come through. The woman said Xiong also shot holes up through the floor into their daughter’s room to try and get rid of the demon.

Xiong also told his wife that their youngest child “has the devil inside him,” and he nearly pointed the gun at the 8-month-old before he was stopped, according to court documents.

Police found fire damage to a wall in the basement next to the bedroom. In the home, officials found a bottle with a yellowish/clear liquid that appeared to be gas, multiple guns, ammunition and a glass meth pipe.

Xiong is currently in custody and has his first court date scheduled for April 24.