City to recoup costs for cars, equipment used by police for private security work

Minneapolis will begin collecting fees to recover costs for the use of city-owned resources by Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers who work for private or nonprofit organizations when they are not on duty working for the city.

The city law change, unanimously approved by the city council on Jan. 30, 2025 and subsequently signed by Mayor Jacob Frey. 

“I was proud to bring forward an ordinance to enable the city to recoup fees along with my co-author, Council President Payne,” Wonsley said. She added that this is “the first step to reining in an inequitable and fiscally appalling program, and is crucial for advancing our goal of an equitable citywide community safety system.”

“This is good governance, plain and simple,” said Payne. “Taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to subsidize private side jobs for police or any city employee.”

According to state law, any fees must be set to accurately recover costs identified through a formal study. The council has called for such a comprehensive fee study to be completed by May 1. That study will provide detailed costs of vehicles, materials, uniforms, administration, and other costs associated with the off-duty work. The council is expected to vote on the fee amounts this autumn with collection starting on Jan. 1, 2026, at the earliest.

 

Controversy about city police officer off-duty work is not new.  

“For decades, both subject matter experts and directly impacted residents have been telling city leaders that MPD’s off-duty system is ripe for corruption and is a bad deal for residents,” said Wonsley. 

In 1990, police lieutenant Mike Sauro, who was working off-duty in downtown Minneapolis, was found to have used excessive force and the city was required to pay $700,000, as part of a civil award settlement. 

Then-Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and then-Police Chief Robert Olson tried to put officers’ off-duty work under the department’s control, but the police officers collective bargaining group, the Minneapolis Police Federation, sued the city and won a court-ordered injunction in 1995. In 1997, a court-approved settlement agreement said, among other things, that the city “agrees that Minneapolis police officers have the right to contract to provide services during the off-duty hours and wear their uniform, badge and gun while performing such duties.”  

“City leaders have spoken publicly about their concerns with off-duty since at least 2017 when MPD officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed a resident named Justine Ruszczyk after working off-duty and starting his on-duty work with very little sleep,” said Ward 7 Council Member Katie Cashman. “Estimates using MPD data indicate that such fees could have recouped up to $1.4 million in 2024.” 

A 2019 city audit of the practice recommended eliminating cash payments and having the city take over the scheduling, billing, and paying of wages for off-duty work. It also noted that the city already charges larger “secondary employers that have a higher demand” an hourly rate for squad car usage and that other “police departments require secondary employers to share the cost of liability insurance” for off-duty work, something Minneapolis has never done. 

In 2020, Mayor Frey convened an off-duty task force, but the group appears to have only met twice and not produced any recommendations or report. 

Also in 2020, the Main Street Alliance, a coalition of small local businesses, called for overhauling the system and a city policy change removed the decades-long practice of requiring business or groups to hire off-duty officers as part of licensing conditions or event permits. Organizations may still be required to hire qualified security or traffic control services.

In 2022, as the most recent police contract was being negotiated, retired Minneapolis police officer Gregory Reinhardt said that “the off-duty provision needs to be reviewed and improved.” As an officer, Reinhardt did off-duty work for the Minnesota Vikings and Whole Foods. “I basically had to curry favor to get those jobs,” he said.  The department would approve the businesses where he could work, but “someone in the rank and file would make the assignments and would collect a management fee.” 

Wonsley started working on the issue in 2022. “Residents were upset and perceived this as the city enabling a ‘pay-to-play’ system for police services,” she recalled, “where corporations were able to pay to receive police services when other residents were not receiving them.”

In 2023, a US. .Department of Justice report concluded that  the city’s “secondary employment (or ‘off-duty’ employment) system undermines supervisory authority” and that the jobs can pay up to $150–175 per hour. They reported “that MPD allows officers to use its squad cars (and gas), and the officer keeps all the compensation. The city gets nothing. Some patrol officers manage these opportunities, deciding who gets the lucrative work. Because MPD allows patrol officers to control whether supervisors get off-duty employment opportunities, supervisors have ample disincentive to hold officers accountable. MPD’s off-duty employment practices impede effective supervision.”

 

At this point it is not only unclear what the fee amounts will be, but also how they will be collected, who will pay them, and what possible negative consequences could result.

At the council meeting on Jan. 30, Ward 8 Council Member Andrea Jenkins shared concerns about how adding fees might impact police off-duty work generally and said that “the cost should not be borne by the officers themselves.”

“We have to enter this with an open mind,” said Ward 3 Council Member Michael Rainville. “Let’s not raise the cost to such an extreme that people are not able to afford their events.” Some larger events, he noted, like the Twin Cities Marathon and Pride, use a large number of officers and squad cars. Cashman, who also represents much of downtown, also shared concerns about raising costs for events.

“I am anxious to get the fee study back from MPD,” said Ward 13 Council Member Linea Palmisano, “so we know exactly what we are looking at here.” Currently off-duty officers can be called back to work for the city at any time. “I want every off-duty officer to be able to swap into active duty whenever necessary,” she added. 

Payne brought up the federation contract and how, in past contracts, the city has been “off-loading a lot of management rights in exchange for lower pay.” With the latest contract, he noted, base salary was significantly increased, and he hopes that the city can negotiate to gain more authority over off-duty work in the future. 

“I’m proud that after nearly 30 years of inaction by city leadership, this council has brought significant accountability and fiscal transparency to what has always been a system ripe for abuse,” said Payne.