Minneapolis police officials are trying to bring overtime spending under tighter control after the department spent $33 million last year against a $6 million budget. Interim Chief Bill Peterson, who took the job in June, told City Council members he inherited a department with no finance director in place and described the situation as “frankly, a mess.” The department is adding approval and tracking rules to monitor overtime more closely.
Peterson spoke at a Minneapolis City Council budget meeting alongside eight other MPD leaders, according to the Star Tribune. The $33 million in overtime spending exceeded the $6 million budget by $27 million in 2025, the seventh consecutive year of record MPD overtime costs. Minneapolis last stayed within its police overtime budget in 2018.
Turnover in former Chief Brian O'Hara's executive team left MPD without a finance director for a stretch, with the chief of staff the only person left tracking spending, the paper reported. Peterson has expanded the budget team to three people, including newly named Director of Financial Operations Sujata Kommuru. O'Hara was ousted for interfering in an investigation into sexual misconduct, according to the same account.
Overtime Filled Nearly Half of All Shifts
O'Hara had said officers working overtime filled about 40% of shifts last year. The department's reliance on overtime grew amid a staffing decline following George Floyd's 2020 murder and the unrest that followed: MPD went from roughly 900 officers before Floyd's death to 560 by spring 2024, its lowest staffing level in at least four decades. O'Hara staffed a juvenile curfew task force and late-night safety plans in downtown, Dinkytown and the Fifth Precinct entirely with overtime. The department also spent heavily on overtime and standby pay during Operation Metro Surge.
MPD Assistant Chief of Operations Mark Klukow criticized the spending, saying, “There was excessive use of overtime [in] 2025; in my view it wasn't appropriate.” He said the spending showed an element of mismanagement, arguing that overtime that can be planned for can also be prevented. Klukow credited the department with recent changes.
New Rules Aim to Rein In Spending
Under Peterson, only the executive team can approve overtime, and MPD reviews spending weekly instead of only after the fact. The department has stopped allowing overtime for work that can be scheduled in advance, including background checks and weapons training, and added an app and dashboard to better oversee overtime.
MPD has also ended double overtime, which paid officers twice their hourly rate rather than the standard time-and-a-half. The department began using the higher rate in fall 2022 to cover staffing gaps and ended the practice this year; earlier reporting had not specified when the change was finalized.
As of Sept. 12, MPD had spent about $17 million on overtime and was projected to exceed its budget by $21.6 million for the year. Separate reporting cited in the same Star Tribune article projected an overrun of more than $23 million in 2026, similar to the amount the department exceeded its budget by in 2025.
Staffing Rebuilds as Budget Fight Continues
MPD had 649 sworn officers as of the council meeting, continuing a gradual recovery from the 560-officer low in 2024. Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed $25.1 million for MPD overtime next year, including $12 million in anticipated vacancy savings because the department remains below its authorized officer count.
Staffing and overtime in a longer view
MPD's sworn ranks fell from 920 officers in March 2019 to 560 in March 2024, then rose to 588 by mid-May 2025, according to department data provided to Axios and reported by Police1. Overtime costs were rising even before the recent staffing decline. A separate Star Tribune report, citing department data, found that MPD overtime pay nearly doubled from $2.9 million in 2014 to $5.5 million in 2018, while overtime hours increased 26%.
The department's reliance on overtime has also affected individual pay. The highest-paid MPD employee in 2024 was a lieutenant who earned about $500,000, nearly half of it from overtime; the top-earning police employee last year took home roughly $281,000 in total pay. Minneapolis police officials have acknowledged that overtime was mismanaged and abused in recent years, contributing to the record overspending now before the City Council.
The council will continue its MPD budget overview at a future meeting as members work out over the next three months how much to budget for the department heading into 2027.
