How many Minneapolis Police Department officers have resigned or transferred since January 2026, according to official MPD personnel records?

1. The claim machine: social posts and opinion sites say officers are “bleeding” out of MPD, but they aren’t MPD records

A wave of social media posts and partisan commentary has framed January 2026 as a sudden exodus of Minneapolis officers, with one widely reposted claim saying “24 officers just resigned” and another accusing roughly 100 officers of disappearing from duty; those claims appear in archived social posts and opinion pieces, not in MPD personnel spreadsheets or official city releases provided here ^{[2] [3] [1]}. The HotAir item and other commentary amplify a union email about low morale and “dangerously low staffing,” but that internal communication is not the same as an MPD-maintained count of resignations or transfers ^[1].

2. What the municipal/official documents in the packet actually show — staffing trends, not a January 2026 headcount

City and municipal materials included in the reporting show a longer-term staffing crisis at MPD — vacancy rates rising from 24% in 2020 to 38% in 2023 and a legal staffing target of 731 officers — which documents systemic attrition but do not enumerate resignations/transfers in January 2026 specifically ^[4]. Similarly, local reporting from earlier years and city payroll tallies documented hundreds of departures across 2020–2022 (273 officers, per payroll reporting) and near-term surge metrics after George Floyd-era upheaval, but those are historical and not personnel records for the period the question targets ^{[5] [6]}.

3. Why the precise answer is absent: the supplied sources lack MPD personnel records for 2026

None of the supplied sources include or cite an MPD personnel roster, an official MPD HR release, or a city personnel report that lists resignations/transfers since January 2026; instead, the file contains commentary, union messages and secondary reporting that reference staffing concerns without providing the specific MPD HR count requested ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}. When a question asks “according to official MPD personnel records,” the correct journalistic response must be anchored to those records — and they are not present among the provided materials.

4. Competing narratives and why they matter: anecdote versus verification

The competing narratives are clear: advocates and pundits emphasize acute departures and immediate operational shortfalls using social evidence and internal union notes ^{[1] [3]}, while municipal documents and long-form reporting trace a sustained attrition trend without giving a contemporaneous headcount for January 2026 ^{[4] [6]}. That divergence highlights the risk of conflating rapid social-media-driven claims with what an MPD personnel ledger would show; the supplied sources make assertions but do not meet the evidentiary standard implied by “according to official MPD personnel records” ^{[2] [3]}.

5. Bottom line and what would be needed to close the gap

Based on the documents and reporting provided, it is not possible to state how many Minneapolis Police Department officers have resigned or transferred since January 2026 “according to official MPD personnel records” because those records are not included or cited in the materials at hand; confirming the exact number would require direct MPD HR data or a city personnel release covering resignations/transfers in that time frame ^[4]. The public reporting does indicate significant staffing stresses and offers varied numerical claims that deserve verification against MPD’s official personnel records before being accepted as fact ^{[1] [5] [2]}.