Budget Problems, Engagement First on the Chopping Block

800-900 officers, a budget of 193 million, and 80% of that is salaries and benefits. And this city does not have a "large" police department relative to other similarly sized cities. Now the Wuhan flu costs come calling.

To preserve the ability to respond to 911 calls, they seem likely to cancel the community engagement and outreach programs. No wonder nobody smart would want to be a mayor.
"MPD insiders say this will likely involve scaling back or disbanding the procedural justice and community engagement units, as well as the PAL program — which runs youth sports teams across the city — in order to preserve a more essential function: responding to 911 calls. If those units do fold, most of those officers would likely go back to patrolling the streets, joining school resource officers, who returned to working out of a squad car after the department lost its contract to work in city schools.

https://www.startribune.com/cost-of-deep-police-cutbacks-comes-into-sharp-view/571730462/?refresh=true