MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is urging City Council members to move quickly on approval for a new position titled Director of Police Heath and Wellness within the department, citing growing concern about the toll recent operations have taken on officers.
MPD says this position would oversee a newly created Health and Wellness Division, and would create a shift from being reactive to proactive when it comes to officer health, mainly mental health.
The proposal follows Operation Metro Surge, which placed intense demands on the department. According to MPD data, more than 1,000 scheduled days off were canceled during the operation, and overtime costs soared to $6.4 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 8. The department also reported a 10% increase in 911 calls over that period.
O’Hara said that since the start of the year, the number of therapy appointments for officers has surged. Fourteen officers have filed for PTSD leave, and eight have retired since Operation Metro Surge began.
“I pushed this within the last couple of months because I was very concerned,” Chief O’Hara said. “We have lived through some of our responders who went to Annunciation, having very, very serious mental health issues, a member that committed suicide. My fear has been when I started to see these PTSD numbers again, what happened here a couple years ago, the PTSD numbers went into, I think well over 200 pretty quickly. And my concern was, what are we doing responsibly to try and make sure that we don’t have that type of thing happen again.”
KARE 11 does not have any details on who the member who died by suicide was, but MPD says their death was certainly something that had a significant impact on the department.
While City Council members agreed the new position is important, concerns arose over how it will be funded. MPD proposed it would be funded by eliminating two other positions within MPD, including a community social worker. The council asked MPD to find an alternative way to fund this new position and Police Chief O’Hara said they will do so. We will likely see that alternative proposal from MPD at Thursday’s City Council meeting.
Despite the strain of Operation Metro Surge, O’Hara commended Minneapolis residents for de-escalating various situations and for the most part, keeping protests peaceful.
