MINNEAPOLIS — Police departments across the country are dealing with staffing shortages, and Minneapolis has especially struggled to recruit and retain officers in the wake of George Floyd's murder.
This week, the department turned to the south to try to improve staffing levels.
Officer Krystal Scott is one of three MPD officers who traveled to Huntsville to work a career fair Thursday at Alabama A&M, a historically Black university. She says they chose the school because a former summer intern currently attends it.
"She was just such a positive person," Scott said, "and we're like, 'There has to be more of her down here.'"
Public information officer Sgt. Garrett Parten said the department is budgeted to have 731 sworn officers but was only at 585 as of mid-September. That's about 150 less than they're budgeted for and 300 shy of where they want to be.
Scott says at least nine people recently joined the MPD as cadets, and that another academy will start within the next month.
"It's been challenging not only for the officers who are day in and day out - they're out there going call to call - but also for families," Scott said. "You have to think about their families and them not seeing their families."
So they're hitting the road, sharing the selling points of working in Minneapolis while also acknowledging its past.
"[The 2020 unrest] comes up a lot obviously but we do a really good job of letting them understand that we've come a long way from that. It did just happen a couple of years ago, however, we've done a lot of adaptations within our department … in order to increase the faith they have in our officers."
"And specifically for us African American officers to go down to a historical Black college shows a lot of support," she said.
Scott, who is from Kentucky but has worked in Minneapolis for the last seven years, says the recruitment team was also honest with students about the cold weather.
They also told students they don't need a criminal justice degree to work for MPD and that all training would be provided.
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