Frey outlines new approach to Minneapolis police spending for 2027 city budget
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As Minneapolis leaders start the city’s budgeting process for 2027, Mayor Jacob Frey said he’s taking a close look at the police department after it overspent by millions of dollars in the past two years.
But Frey said the answer isn’t spending less money — it’s budgeting for the spending.
The police department anticipates coming in $23 million over budget this year, after similar overspending in 2025. That money went to overtime pay for officers, which Frey said was needed, particularly after the Annunciation shooting and during the federal immigration enforcement surge.
“These are really not optional decisions when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it,” Frey said. “If we don’t approve these overtime hours, we’re not able to do the basic work that the city demands.”
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Minneapolis City Council members have pushed back on that argument. Several cited the overspending as a reason they hesitated to approve renominations of former Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette.
And several council members criticized the department’s use of overtime during the federal immigration enforcement operation. The department spent millions on overtime, including keeping officers on standby. Council members repeatedly asked O’Hara why officers didn’t do more to intervene between residents and immigration agents.
Frey said his administration is looking to craft next year’s city budget differently. The 2026 budget included about $2.3 million for police overtime, but Frey said that was “never anywhere close to accurate” — city and police department officials knew spending would exceed that.
The department anticipated covering extra costs with vacancy savings — money budgeted for officer pay, but not spent, because the department has fewer officers than allowed in the budget.
But this year, Frey said, hiring went up. Those officers don’t take shifts right away — instead, they start training. Frey said the result was more officers on payroll, but not enough on the streets to curb the need for overtime.
“There was a flood of applicants,” Frey said. “We did not anticipate such an increase in the number of officers that we got.”
Frey said he wants to keep hiring. The current budget allows for 731 officers — the minimum allowed under the city charter. But the department is still below that number. Frey said he hopes to get to 731 officers in 2027.
And Frey said he’d like to hire beyond that number, too — closer to the 888 sworn officers that the department had at the start of 2020. City administrators say the cost of supporting that many officers would be comparable to the city’s current spending on police overtime.
On Thursday, Frey said he hasn’t made any decisions yet on how much money to request for police in the next budget.
“We still can't entirely predict what those overtime hours can be. We can get more in the realm of reality, though,” Frey said.
He said spending less on overtime, or hiring fewer officers, aren’t acceptable solutions.
The budget could already be tight. The city will have to account for a deficit that could total up to $33 million. In a presentation to the city council earlier this year, city finance staff cited personnel costs increasing, with revenue staying flat or decreasing. That could mean tax hikes for residents — and layoffs of some city workers.
Frey is expected to propose a budget Wednesday. He and the council will have to settle a final budget before the end of the year.
