A hiring campaign launched last month by the Minneapolis Police Department is already having a positive impact according to police chief Brian O’Hara, but those positive results could by stymied by a mass exodus of officers who are up for retirement this year.
O’Hara, who joined WCCO Radio’s Adam Carter on Tuesday during the Adam and Jordana Show, said the department’s on track to make more hires this year than compared to last year.
“We have seen very positive signs in recruiting, even before this campaign started,” O’Hara said. “There’s a lot of work being done by our officers. We have a lieutenant that’s over-recruiting and he’s brought in a lot of other police officers to try and bring more folks in the door.”
The $1 million campaign called “Imagine Yourself” targets younger people and those living within 300 miles of Minneapolis. It includes a recruitment video and job information all posted on one-central website.
“Obviously there’s stuff we have to do as a city,” added O’Hara. “City leaders, we need to settle the police contract. That’s a big deal for cops working here. That will help with recruiting.”
O’Hara said despite the department being in a better position now than it was a year ago, the situation still remains very dire.
“This year we’re going to have even more people eligible to retire that are coming up on age because of the Clinton hiring grants. I don’t think we’ll keep pace with attrition this year either. So we will continue to get smaller even when we’re hiring more people. I can’t overstate how serious this situation is.”
O’Hara covered a number of topics during his appearance on WCCO Radio, even speaking about a proposal by the group Campaign Zero to end the city’s use of ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection technology used by the Minneapolis Police Department.
“There’s an outrageous level of gun violence and shots fired in the city,” O’Hara said. “Gun violence is a very complex issue. ShotSpotter is a part of that strategy.”
Campaign Zero argues that ShotSpotter often mistakes loud noises for gunshots and could lead to slower police response times.
“We would know absolutely nothing about automatic gunfire in our city if it wasn’t for ShotSpotter. Literally, we would know nothing about the prevalence of assault weapons on the street because that’s the only audible way of determining gunfire.”
The group referenced a study in March that analyzed public data from 2020 to 2023. That study reportedly showed ShotSpotter’s disproportionate impact on Black and Native American communities in Minneapolis.
Campaign Zero argues that the technology’s use leads to over-policing along with unwarranted stops and searches.
O’Hara argued on Tuesday that many gunshots are starting to go unreported by Minneapolis residents who hear them because of how common they’ve become.
“People are not even reporting shots when they hear them because it’s gotten to a situation where it’s just background noise. If we’re not doing everything possible to try and help save peoples’ lives, we’re not doing our job.”
Minneapolis has reportedly invested over $2.2 million in ShotSpotter since 2007. That investment has paid off in a variety of ways according to O’Hara.
“It can tell us in situations where there’s self-defense, who fired first when there’s conflicting evidence,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s very positive, it won’t solve gun violence by itself. It is not by itself something that is not going to solve gun crime. It is a tool to try and deal with a very complex crime that helps us get life-saving aid to people faster than without it.”
So far no action has been taken by the council to remove ShotSpotter.
“ShotSpotter covers about 12 percent of the city’s geography, where a vast majority of the residence are experiencing gun violence regularly. I think if you asked the residents if this is something they want or if it’s something they want taken away, they’d tell you what they want,” added O’Hara.