MPD to limit officers’ hours, hire health and wellness manager

The city of Minneapolis and its police department have announced a new focus on officers’ health and wellness.

Monday, the city announced a new policy that limits how many hours an officer can work in a week or any shift.

The policy — which went into effect on May 22 — says officers can’t work more than 74 hours in a week or over 16 hours in a single day. Additionally, officers are required to have eight consecutive hours off for every 24 hours worked, and one full 24-hour period each week without any work shifts.

“Let’s be real, our officers are tackling some of the most difficult circumstances that anyone will see or experience, we want to make sure they are at their very best,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

Until now, MPD says it didn’t have a set policy on how long an officer could work.

Also, the city announced plans to hire an MPD health and wellness manager.

“They can only provide the very best service to members of our community when they are supported with access to strong mental health and wellness programs, policies that support adequate rest and time to recharge,” interim MPD Chief Amelia Huffman said.

Minneapolis officers have been working additional hours as the department deals with a staffing shortage, down nearly 280 officers in the last two years. That includes, at one point, more than 175 officers taking disability leave.

The new health manager position will be in charge of creating and implementing a wellness program for all police department staff. The job will be posted on the city’s website this week, officials say.

“Up to this point, we’ve identified a real lack of comprehensive mental health services as a need in the department,” Huffman said.

A firm hired by the city will provide trauma-informed psychological services to officers to help them process what they encounter in their jobs.

Finally, the city also announced an updated matrix to guide disciplinary decisions within MPD. The matrix went into effect June 1, according to city officials.

The city says the updates were made in collaboration with the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis and through similar frameworks from several other police agencies.

The matrix outlines factors used to evaluate policy violations and the appropriate level of discipline.

According to the city, the new matrix emphasizes evaluating the harm or risk created by misconduct and a new violation section to clearly list violations that warrant termination.

A full copy of the matrix can be downloaded by following THIS LINK. Meanwhile, a copy of the department’s manual can be found by CLICKING HERE.

As of May 21, MPD had 748 employees, including 621 sworn officers. The department also listed 39 sworn officers on continuous leave.

You can watch the full press conference with the mayor and interim police chief discussing the latest MPD reforms in the media player below.