Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired to oversee reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, chose to resign rather than face disciplinary action for interfering with an investigation into his conduct, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday.
O’Hara, who led local police during the recent federal immigration crackdown in the city, was under investigation on accusations that he was engaging in intimate relationships with city employees.
While those allegations were never substantiated, Frey said investigators found that O’Hara had interfered with the probe. He is accused of deleting a contact card from his city-issued cell phone in an attempt to shield evidence and telling another city employee about the investigation after he was instructed to keep it quiet, according to a written reprimand obtained by The Associated Press.
The mayor told O’Hara he would be disciplined, which could include his termination. He chose to resign instead, Frey said.
“It was an extremely painful decision, obviously, but I concluded that that was necessary to maintain public trust, and this was the right way to move forward as a city,” Frey said.
“Trust is not secondary to the job. It is the job,” he added.
The city still has 17 open complaints against O’Hara — separate from the investigation that resulted in disciplinary action — and will continue investigating, mayor’s office spokesperson Jennifer Lor said. Lor could not comment on the nature of those complaints.
O’Hara did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.
O’Hara became the chief in 2022 as the department was at the center of a nationwide reckoning over racism and brutality in policing. Two years prior, Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white officer in Minneapolis, igniting global Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police.
Last year, Minneapolis entered an agreement with the federal government to overhaul its police training and use-of-force policies in the wake Floyd’s murder. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump canceled the agreement months later.
O’Hara oversaw the law enforcement response to the deadly Annunciation Catholic School shooting last August.
He criticized immigration enforcement tactics in December after a federal agent kneeled on a woman’s back during an arrest and then tried to drag her to a car. Minneapolis police faced scrutiny from all sides during Trump’s immigration crackdown by people who thought the officers were helping or hindering federal agents and protests.
Assistant Police Chief Katie Blackwell has stepped in to lead the department during the search for a new chief, Frey said.
