What is the year over comparison between Minneapolis pd resignations from 2020 to 2026
Executive summary
Minneapolis saw a sharp, sustained exodus of officers beginning in 2020 that translated into rising vacancy rates and a dramatically smaller sworn force through 2023; quantified measures in city and media reporting show resignations/attrition drove vacancy rates from 24% in 2020 to 38% in 2023 and at least 273 officers left between 2020 and 2022 [1] [2]. Sources document the department shrinking from roughly 892 officers pre-2020 to the mid-500s by 2023–2024, but up-to-date, citywide resignation counts for 2025–2026 are not available in the provided reporting [3] [4].
1. The 2020 inflection point and immediate aftermath: a wave of departures
The resignation trend traces to the unrest following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, when multiple outlets reported an early wave of exits and disability filings that began an unprecedented staff contraction; at least seven immediate resignations were recorded in June 2020 amid protests and, in the months after, “nearly 200” officers applied to leave citing post-traumatic stress, according to contemporaneous reporting [5] [6]. Local audits and payroll reviews show the hemorrhaging continued: KSTP’s review of city payroll found 273 officers left the department from 2020 through 2022, a concrete data point that captures the early bulk of the loss [2].
2. Measurable impact: vacancy rates and headcount decline, 2020–2023
The city auditor and staff reports put the MPD vacancy rate at 24% in 2020, rising to 33% in 2021, 37% in 2022 and 38% in 2023, signaling a steady year-over-year deterioration in staffing levels [1]. Independent reporting and federal data corroborate the scale: the Department of Justice recorded about 585 sworn officers as of May 2023 versus roughly 892 in 2018 — a decline of roughly one-third — and local outlets repeatedly described the department as down to the lowest levels in decades [3] [7].
3. The human story behind the numbers: retirements, resignations, disability claims
Reporting attributes departures to a mix of resignations, early retirements and disability claims largely tied to PTSD and low morale, not solely to voluntary quitting for other jobs; national context shows retirements and resignations rose broadly after 2020, compounding Minneapolis’s losses [6] [8] [9]. Police leadership called the trend unsustainable and organized targeted recruiting efforts, underscoring that the problem was both about exits and insufficient replacement hiring [2].
4. Year-over-year comparison summary (2020 → 2023) — quantifying the change
The clearest year-over-year markers in available documents are vacancy rates: an increase from 24% to 38% between 2020 and 2023 — a relative rise of ~58% in the vacancy percentage — and the raw departures captured as 273 officers leaving from 2020–2022, with total sworn headcount sliding from roughly 892 pre-2020 to the mid-500s by 2023–2024 [1] [2] [4] [3]. Those figures show resignations and other separations outpacing hires for multiple consecutive years, producing a net negative staffing trajectory.
5. 2024–2026: limited public data and competing indicators
Sources show some national signs of modest staffing recovery in 2024 in broad PERF surveys, but Minneapolis-specific resignation counts for 2024–2026 are not present in the provided reporting, and Star Tribune reporting indicates the city’s active officers dropped into the low 500s in late 2023–early 2024 [10] [4]. Therefore, while national surveys suggest slight increases in total staffing in 2024, the available Minneapolis reporting through early 2024 still documents an aggregate loss relative to 2019–2020 levels and does not provide firm numbers for 2025 or 2026 to calculate a year-over-year resignation comparison for those years [10] [4].
6. Context, alternative interpretations and reporting agendas
Advocates and some reporters note crime fell in parts of 2023–2024 despite lower officer counts, arguing that fewer officers did not automatically mean greater safety risk — a counterpoint to narratives that directly equate staffing drops with crime increases [4] [11]. Conversely, union and law‑enforcement‑oriented outlets emphasize morale and “exodus” framing and link staffing shortfalls to public-safety degradation [12] [8]. Many sources also situate Minneapolis in a national trend of higher retirements and resignations post-2020, signaling structural forces beyond local policy choices [1] [9].
7. Bottom line and limits of this analysis
Between 2020 and 2023 Minneapolis saw clear, quantifiable deterioration in staffing driven by resignations/retirements/disability claims — vacancy rates rose from 24% to 38% and at least 273 officers left from 2020–2022, producing a roughly one-third decline in sworn strength by mid‑2023 — but the supplied reporting lacks complete, year-by-year resignation counts for 2024–2026, so a full year-over-year tally through 2026 cannot be compiled from these sources alone [1] [2] [3] [4].