A lawsuit filed this week seeks to compel Mayor Jacob Frey to adequately staff the Minneapolis Police Department as required by the city charter.
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) filed the lawsuit on behalf of Minneapolis residents Ronald Peterson and Laverne Turner, as well as Minneapolis property owners John Tschohl and Mary Holmberg.
The case stems from an earlier lawsuit filed by UMLC, which ultimately led to the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that the mayor has a clear legal duty to employ at least 731 sworn police officers under the Minneapolis City Charter.
“This case is about enforcing the law as written and as already interpreted by the Minnesota Supreme Court,” said Doug Seaton, president of UMLC. “The Mayor does not have discretion to ignore the City Charter. Minneapolis residents are entitled to the police protection the law requires, and after years of noncompliance, the court must now enforce that duty.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Rachel Paulose said the Minneapolis Police Department needs to hire an additional 100 officers to comply with the charter’s minimum requirement.
“As detailed in our court documents, a once-great city has degenerated into the Wild West, in the words of one of our actual clients, all because police do not have the personnel to respond to actual crime causing actual harm to actual constituents,” Paulose said.
According to the lawsuit, Mayor Frey has “completely failed” to fulfill the duties spelled out in the 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
“There has not been a single day for that entire time in which the Mayor has even come close to employing the minimum number of sworn officers commanded by the City Charter, confirmed by this Court, and affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court,” the lawsuit says.
“Indeed, for the past four years, the Minneapolis Police Department has continuously been more than 100 officers short of the legal minimum established by the Supreme Court. And as of today, the Mayor employs fewer sworn police officers than when this Court issued its alternative writ of mandamus against him over 56 months ago,” it adds.
UMLC is asking the court to order the mayor to immediately comply with the charter and staff the Minneapolis Police Department at the required level. In the alternative, the petition asks the court to issue an expedited order requiring the mayor to show cause why he has not fulfilled that obligation.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
