The resignation of Brian O’Hara ends a turbulent three-and-a-half-year tenure for the chief brought in to revive the Minneapolis Police Department after it became the focal point of a national reckoning over racialized policing. O’Hara was appointed by Mayor Jacob Frey in November 2022 with a mandate to implement the reforms demanded by a U.S. Department of Justice pattern-or-practice investigation and a parallel Minnesota Department of Human Rights probe, both of which had found that MPD officers routinely used excessive force and engaged in racist practices against Black residents. The department was already reeling from the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the global protests that followed, and a 2021 ballot measure in which more than 43% of city voters endorsed disbanding the police force entirely.
According to the mayor’s office, a third-party investigation retained by the city found that O’Hara had likely interfered in an internal affairs case concerning an officer’s alleged misconduct. The specific nature of the interference and the underlying case were not released. In a letter to Mayor Frey, O’Hara acknowledged the finding and wrote that the investigation left it “painfully clear that my time in Minneapolis has come to an end.” He concluded that he could “no longer be effective as chief” and said that resigning was “the best thing for this community.”
O’Hara arrived in Minneapolis after spending most of his career in Newark, New Jersey, where he helped guide that department through its own federal consent decree over excessive force and unconstitutional stops. His selection was seen as a signal that the city intended to pursue meaningful reform. But he now becomes the third police chief to leave the department since Floyd’s death, following Medaria Arradondo, who resigned in early 2022, and the brief interim tenure that preceded O’Hara’s appointment.
Reaction from city leaders was sharp. City Council member Robin Wonsley called the resignation “an embarrassment” and “a clear indication that something is systematically wrong with how we do business here.” The council’s public-safety committee chair had previously criticized the mayor for bringing in an outsider with the city’s history still raw, saying it was “a recipe for disaster.”
The Police Executive Research Forum’s Chuck Wexler warned that the city would struggle to attract a national-caliber replacement. “Minneapolis is a political cauldron,” Wexler told the Associated Press. “The public is demanding, the city’s politics are demanding, and the police department is in the middle of it.” He added that many strong candidates would ask “why would someone go there?”
Doug Kelley, an attorney who once served as the city’s federal monitor, described the department as being “at a crossroads.” Kelley noted that O’Hara was the third chief in four years and that the city had paid millions in settlements over police misconduct. “It is clear what the city needs, and the path forward,” Kelley said, “but it is not clear the city will be able to find someone willing to walk that path.”
Mayor Frey has the authority under the city charter to appoint a temporary replacement and plans to conduct a national search for a permanent chief, his office said. The appointment will require City Council confirmation, setting up a potential confrontation between the mayor and council members who have demanded a more transparent process.
Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis officer set off protests and demands for police reform that reverberated far beyond the city. The Department of Justice investigation, released in 2023, concluded that MPD officers used excessive force, discriminated against Black people, and violated First Amendment rights. The state’s civil rights probe reached similar conclusions. The department has operated under a state court-enforceable settlement since 2024 that mandates sweeping changes to its policies and oversight.
O’Hara’s resignation leaves those reforms in the hands of an acting leadership team that has yet to be named, and a city that has now cycled through three chiefs in the six years since Floyd’s death.