Lawsuit against City of Minneapolis for not having enough police officers moves forward

Lawsuit against City of Minneapolis for not having enough police officers moves forward

Posted by: Gregory Hoyt Lawenforcement Today

A lawsuit brought against the City of Minneapolis by a group of citizens concerned about police being understaffed is reportedly moving forward. 

The lawsuit is coming from a group coined as the Minneapolis 8, who allege that the city’s lack of police officers is resulting in there being a failure to protect the community from increasing gun violence. 

Cathy Spann is one of the Minneapolis 8 bringing the suit forward, which a judge hearing the case recently approved for the case to move forward. 

Spann noted that the case moving forward is of huge substance: 

“This is big, this is big…The judge says no dismissal, I need more information, more discovery from the city of Minneapolis.”

Apparently the Minneapolis city charter mandates that there be a police force of at least 743 police officers working in the city; however, the city hasn’t come forward with exactly how many officers are indeed staffed within Minneapolis. 

There has been over 500 people shot so far within the city in 2020, which the group bringing the lawsuit says a lack of police protection is contributing to said increases in violence. 

While Spann is among those that believes police reform should transpire, she also noted there also has to be a police presence to quell the surging violence: 

“We are asking for transformation of the police department, the culture of the police department. But right now, today, with communities such as Jordan that are under siege with gun violence, what we are asking is that we need public safety while transformation is occurring.”

Spann says that areas like Jordan within Minneapolis aren’t the only communities suffering from teh increase in violent crime either: 

“And it is not just Jordan. It is the north side of Minneapolis. It is the south side of Minneapolis. It is the downtown businesses. Come on, this city is bleeding.”

In a statement released from the city, officials are seemingly confident that they’ll prevail in the outcome of this lawsuit: 

“This recent decision only means that the judge ruled that the plaintiffs have standing to file this lawsuit. We will continue to defend the City on this matter, and we’re confident the City will be found to have met the City Charter’s police funding requirements.”

It’s been a strange year with regard to policing in Minneapolis and the reactions of the public and elected officials.

From calls of defunding, to lawsuits against the city for there not being enough police – and even recently allocated funding via the city council for more police officers. 

It appears “defund” the police went to “refund” recently, after the Minneapolis City Council voted in favor of allocating nearly $500K in funds to recruit police officers from outside forces to join the Minneapolis Police Department.