Following the announcement of interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Thursday that the Minneapolis City Council has approved his funding request for five more police recruiting classes.
The funding will come following a tough year and a half for the Minneapolis Police Department that has lost approximately 300 police officers since the death of George Floyd.
Huffman addressed these concerns while following Frey's announcement that she would take the role on Jan. 15, 2022. Huffman said there is a need for hiring, and she will work to put the right officers on the force.
Mayor Frey spoke with News Talk 830 WCCO's Chad Hartman about the approval of his funding requests saying that officers need to be suitable for the job and have incentives to help keep them on the force.
"It's not good enough to have five recruiting classes if there's only five people in each recruiting class," Frey said. "You actually need to have those recruiting classes filled."
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Frey said that everyone needs to realize that cops need to get "paid more and fired more."
"Paid more so that we're incentivizing the best possible, community-oriented, professionalized person to say 'Hey, I want to be the change in that department,'" Frey said. "And they need to be held accountable if they aren't living up to the values that we've insisted upon, and they need to be fired. Both of those things need to be true."
Policing has been a hot topic nationally and in Minneapolis since the death of Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in may of 2020.
Most recently, the 2021 Minneapolis ballot asked residents whether or not they should remove the police department entirely through question two.
Frey and current Chief Medaria Arradondo, who is set to retire on Jan. 15, 2022, opposed the question but still called for change within the department.
