Some Minnesota State Troopers are now patrolling Minneapolis streets.
This came at the request of Mayor Jacob Frey and city leaders who are trying to get a grip on mass shootings that have rocked the city in recent weeks.
Police Chief Brian O'Hara says he's grateful for the extra patrols that began on Wednesday.
"We need bodies, especially when we have these spikes and so many shootings and so much violence in such a short period of time," O'Hara said. "We don't have an extra bench of people to pull in the game."
Just this week, there were five people shot near the Metro Transit station at Lake Street and 35W late Monday morning. Then late Monday, another eight were shot near a homeless encampment in the Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis.
That encampment, now shut down, and the area of the first shooting were known problem spots to the MPD according to O'Hara.
Minneapolis has made progress in hiring more police officers, something the city has been trying to play catch-up on since 2020. O'Hara told WCCO's Chad Hartman while hiring is going well, they're still about a third of the number of officers short of where they need to be.
The Minneapolis City Charter previously mandated a minimum of 731 sworn police officers, a number tied to the city's population and the target of a court-ordered lawsuit for the department to meet.
While the city charter still has the requirement, staffing levels have fluctuated due to retirements, and officers leaving the MPD following the unrest in the wake of George Floyd's killing by former officer Derek Chauvin.
A recent report in June 2025 showed the department has over 600 officers for the first time since 2023.