After lengthy attrition, Minneapolis police welcome largest graduating recruitment class in years

The Minneapolis Police Department welcomed graduates of its largest recruitment class in years Thursday, marking what city officials say is a turning point with the influx of new officers outpacing the departures.

A total of 33 new Minneapolis officers — 29 recruits and four lateral hires from other departments — were given badges at the ceremony at Shiloh Temple in north Minneapolis. Following the ceremony, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the department has around 605 sworn officers with the new graduations, and that an upcoming class of 25 recruits will start training in a couple of weeks.

It’s still a far cry from the sworn officer total before the pandemic and the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, when Minneapolis had about 900 officers. But O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey said they are encouraged by the large class size, which was greater than January’s graduation ceremony for 19 officers.

O’Hara recalled in his speech to the church filled with officers and their families about how dire staffing trends looked for most of his three years in Minneapolis. Most previous classes have had just 10 or 12 recruits, O’Hara said — not enough to keep up with attrition.

“Month after month the department was still just fading away,” he said.

With the new class of recruits and even larger-sized graduations anticipated, though, Frey said after the graduation that “the pipeline is now filled.”

O’Hara said he worked with Frey, who supported the chief’s suggested steps. That included making an additional cadet class this year, speeding up the hiring process and sending applicants to college training programs more quickly than in the past. The class of 27 men and six women also includes more officers who reside in Minneapolis.

Speakers at the ceremony described the diversity of the graduating class, which included officers who spent time growing up in Liberia, Kenya, Thailand, Mexico, Turkey, Germany, South Korea and Qatar. The new officers ranged in age from 20 to 49, according to the designated class speaker officer Victoria Artishon, a Minneapolis resident and a member of Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.

“Our recruit class is diverse, however, we are all united in our commitment to protect and serve the communities of Minneapolis,” Artishon said.

Each of the recruits had family members walk to the front to pin their badges on as part of the ceremony. Several of the family members said after the ceremony they were surprised to learn their loved one was planning to become a police officer.

Kamall Kedir, a cousin of new Minneapolis officer Maslah Abdi, said he’s also about to begin training to join the department. He said he felt “starstruck” seeing his cousin in a police uniform and that he thinks it’s important to have police officers that represent the city’s different communities. Leading up to his training, Kedir said his cousin has been “showing him the ropes.”

“You don’t get to see a lot of Somali officers,” Kedir said. “It’s always important being able to look at your heroes and who you look up to and being able to see yourself in them.”

The graduation comes on the heels of a difficult month in Minneapolis, with four mass shootings, including at Annunciation Catholic Church where two children were killed and 21 people were injured. Frey pointed to the efforts of the Minneapolis officers who responded to the church as a model for what the newcomers should aspire to — wrapping tourniquets around victims, directing others how to seal a gaping wound while also making sure there were no explosives or additional shooters at the scene.