Super Bowl LII Could Mean Exodus Of Veteran Minneapolis Cops: Report

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — No one in Minneapolis wants to miss out on the party that Super Bowl LII promises, including more than 50 police officers who are now eligible for retirement. Those officers are sticking around and looking to reap the benefits of overtime that the weeklong party promises ahead of the game on Feb. 4, 2018 at U.S. Bank Stadium, according to a report.

Police union president Bob Kroll told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that dozens of officers plan to file for retirement after the big game. While 20 or so officers retire during a given year, Kroll told the newspaper that the department can expect twice as many officers to retire after the game.

There is big incentive to stay: Officers in Minneapolis and from across the state will be paid $55 an hour and $82 an hour for overtime, according to the Star-Tribune report. Some of the that will be reimbursed by the Minneapolis Super Bowl Host Committee, which is expected to pay the city $4.9 million, of which $3.1 million is earmarked for public safety, according to the report.

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Meantime, the city is not worried and is not expecting a mass retirement after the Super Bowl, according to a police department spokesman.

“While the Chief certainly looks at attrition and has witnessed an increase in recent years, we do not have anything verifiable that tells us we will witness a ‘mass retirement’ post-Super Bowl,” Scott Seroka, a police spokesman, said in an e-mail.

The department has 856 officers. It also has two classes of recruits in training, some of whom will be ready for the streets of Minneapolis next spring.

>>> For more details, read the full article in the Star Tribune.

Photo: A general view of the stadium before the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints game on September 11, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)