On HIRING NEW COPS. The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously for this. This is the same city council which voted in December to approve a budget that was set to move $8 million of funding from the police despite record crime rates. The Minneapolis Police Department currently has only 638 officers available to work, around 200 fewer than usual. With new recruit classes, the city anticipates it will have 674 officers available at the end of the year, with another 28 in the hiring process. However, there remains a threat to police protection in Minneapolis. Yes 4 Minneapolis, a coalition of local community groups financed by George Soros, is collecting signatures to try to get a proposal to replace the police department with a public safety department that would include law enforcement and other services on the November ballot. The Yes 4 Minneapolis committee is being fueled by a half-million dollar grant from the Washington, DC-based group Open Society Policy Center, which is associated with billionaire George Soros.