Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, resigned on Tuesday after a report concluded he likely interfered with an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. Mayor Jacob Frey issued a formal reprimand for serious misconduct and said he had lost confidence in O’Hara’s ability to lead.
The investigation, detailed by the New York Times, found no evidence to support claims that O’Hara had improper sexual relationships with city employees. However, it determined he probably deleted a contact from his phone last year while facing a separate internal inquiry, constituting interference. Frey’s letter to O’Hara stated that the behaviour demonstrated poor judgment and a lack of integrity.
O’Hara was appointed in November 2022 with a mandate to reform the Minneapolis police department, which had been rocked by the murder of George Floyd in 2020. He was credited with reversing a wave of officer resignations and reducing crime, but Frey said trust had been broken. “Trust is not secondary to the job, it is the job,” Frey told a press conference.
O’Hara has not publicly commented on his resignation. Assistant police chief Katie Blackwell will serve as acting chief until a permanent replacement is found. During his tenure, O’Hara had also been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, which resulted in the deaths of two unarmed US citizen protesters in January.
