MINNEAPOLIS — Mayor Jacob Frey has included $355,000 in his proposed 2025 budget to expedite the background check and hiring process for Minneapolis Police, which still remains hundreds of officers short.
In an interview alongside MPD Chief Brian O'Hara on Thursday, Frey confirmed that the money would go toward an "external entity" that could help work through candidate background checks more quickly and put officers on the streets faster.
"We can bring in an officer, an officer can apply, but if it takes 10 to 12 weeks to do the background check, in the meantime they might decide to go to another police department or another profession entirely," Frey said. "This is dramatically reducing the time frame."
Frey said applications have surged in recent months, and for the first time in years, the department expects to end 2024 with more officers than it began with this year. Currently, MPD has 574 sworn officers, but the next academy graduation in the fall could be the largest post-pandemic class yet.
"That's a big deal, especially when you consider where we've been at these last several years," Frey said. "One of the final pieces to get this right, is around background checks."
The background check process is taking longer, in part, because of new hiring systems within MPD, according to O'Hara and Frey.
O'Hara ordered changes last year after facing criticism over the hiring of Officer Tyler Timberlake, who landed a position in Minneapolis despite being acquitted of excessive force allegations at a previous job in Virginia. O'Hara, who attended the interview with Timberlake during his first few days on the job, said it was at that point he learned the department still used paper records for background checks and did not have adequate oversight.
"We had to modernize what was just an archaic process, and add higher levels of scrutiny, because we cannot risk having someone get through that can be a police officer but just does not meet the standards, the value of what our community here expects," O'Hara said. "That being said, it's more manpower intensive, takes a longer period of time. As we're experiencing more and more applications, we need help. We need outside help to get through them."
Although the city council must still approve the 2025 budget, O'Hara said the mayor was able to secure a temporary contract to help MPD outsource applications immediately.
"We have already outsourced over 100 applications, so that we don't lose those applicants. Otherwise, if we're not able to compete all these background investigations, those folks aren't going to wait," O'Hara said. "They're going to take jobs elsewhere."
It's not clear what entity the city is using to outsource those applications on a temporary basis, nor is it clear what kind of firm would be used in the future if the council approves the mayor's 2025 budget proposal.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, an activist and civil rights attorney, has been monitoring the MPD hiring process closely.
"My hope is there is some oversight with regard to this process and the outside agency, and that it's taxpayer money well spent," Levy Armstrong said. "Every dollar counts in terms of how the city uses those resources."
Levy Armstrong said she remains skeptical, following the controversy over Officer Tyler Timberlake's hiring.
"I'm more concerned about what the chief and what the department will do with the information once they find out, for example, that an officer has engaged in excessive force, or has used deadly force or mistreated people," she said. "Are they still going to hire that person? We honestly don't know."
O'Hara, however, promised that the department has raised its hiring standards.
"We're looking for the ones that are a good fit for our community here," O'Hara said. "That's why we need higher levels of scrutiny."