Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday that “police officers need to get paid more and fired more” in order to attract and retain officers as they continue to leave the embattled Minneapolis Police Department.

“They need to get paid more so that we are incentivizing the best, most talented, community-oriented officers to sign up for what is, yes, a very, very hard job,” Frey said.

So, how much do MPD officers get paid?

Starting salaries certainly affect an agency’s ability to recruit officers, and Minneapolis non-supervisory police officers have the third highest starting wage in the state, at the equivalent of more than $65,000 per year. That’s according to a 2019 review of law enforcement compensation in the state’s 33 largest cities by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. Police are currently working off a contract that expired in 2019.

Inver Grove Heights had the highest starting wage, at nearly $72,000 annually, followed by Minnetonka at nearly $66,000. The median starting salary was $60,636.

Those are new police officers, not sergeants, lieutenants and other high-ranking officers. Sergeants start at $44.20 per hour, or the equivalent of nearly $92,000 per year if they worked a 40-hour week and lieutenants at $106,000 per year, according to city data.

The top salary — a combination of the highest base salary and highest longevity pay — has more of an impact on departments’ ability to retain cops.

Minneapolis lagged several suburban departments with the sixth...

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