Brian O’Hara’s Rise and Resignation as Minneapolis Chief

Brian O’Hara was the 54th chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, serving from November 7, 2022 until his resignation on May 26, 2026. He left under threat of termination by Mayor Jacob Frey after an outside law firm found he had knowingly interfered with a misconduct investigation into his own conduct. A 20-year veteran of the Newark, New Jersey police force, O’Hara had been recruited to rebuild a department depleted after the murder of George Floyd, and he has since launched a consulting firm.

Who O’Hara Was Before Minneapolis

O’Hara grew up in Kearny, New Jersey, graduated from Kearny High School in 1997, and earned a bachelor of science and a master of arts in criminal justice from Rutgers University.¹ He joined the Newark Police Department as a patrol officer in 2001 and made captain in 2016.²

The experience that made him a candidate for Minneapolis was his work on Newark’s 2016 federal consent decree, which followed a Department of Justice finding that the Newark Police Division had engaged in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing. O’Hara led the department’s Consent Decree and Planning Division from 2017 to 2020 and later described the decree as a necessary “vehicle to mandate reforms that are not always popular.”³ Mayor Ras Baraka appointed him Newark’s public safety director in early 2021 and elevated him to deputy mayor for strategic initiatives in police services and public safety by mid-2022.²

How He Got the Minneapolis Job

A California-based consulting firm ran the nationwide search, which included public surveys and a committee that forwarded three finalists to Mayor Frey. The Minneapolis City Council confirmed O’Hara unanimously, and he was sworn in on November 7, 2022.⁴ He was 43, had visited Minneapolis only once before, and moved into the North Loop with his wife, Wafiyyah, a sergeant with the Newark Police Department.⁵

He walked into a department that had lost roughly 500 sworn officers since early 2020. O’Hara regularly described the force as “depleted and demoralized” and made rebuilding its ranks the central goal of his tenure, while acknowledging that recruiting faced “very negative perception” that made the work harder in Minneapolis than elsewhere.⁶

What He Did as Chief

Staffing and the Consent Decree

By September 2025 the department had climbed back to about 600 sworn officers, with O’Hara projecting roughly 100 more within a year.⁷ Mayor Frey publicly credited him with boosting ranks and working to restore community trust.⁸

Federal oversight of the department shifted mid-tenure. A proposed federal consent decree was filed in January 2025, but the Trump administration moved to withdraw in May 2025, and a federal judge granted the dismissal. Frey responded with Executive Order 2025-01, directing city leaders to implement every reform in the federal agreement not already covered by a separate state consent decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights entered in 2023.⁹ A June 2026 progress report from the independent evaluator Effective Law Enforcement For All praised department training on use-of-force policies and officer wellness efforts but flagged delays in intervention policies and a backlog of unresolved internal affairs investigations.¹⁰

Operation Metro Surge

During the winter of 2025–2026, the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” sent more than 3,000 federal agents, including ICE officers, into Minneapolis. O’Hara described the operation as causing “chaos” and criticized federal agencies for terrifying residents and eroding trust in local police.¹¹ He stood up a 24/7 operations center to triage ICE-related calls, held monthly meetings with Somali community leaders and biweekly meetings with Latino pastors and business owners, and designated “dialogue officers” in affected neighborhoods. The response leaned on mutual aid from St. Paul, National Guard support, and mandatory overtime.¹²

The Annunciation Church Shooting

On August 27, 2025, a gunman opened fire during Mass at a south Minneapolis church where students from Annunciation Catholic School had gathered. Two children were killed and 14 children and three adults wounded before the shooter died by suicide. The first officer arrived within four minutes of the initial 911 call, and all victims were loaded into ambulances within 14 minutes of that arrival. O’Hara reached the scene roughly 20 minutes after the first responder.⁷

The Investigation That Ended His Tenure

How It Started

On May 1, 2025, Frey and Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette met with O’Hara about complaints that he had engaged in intimate relationships with city employees. According to Barnette, O’Hara became agitated when told to surrender his city-issued phone for forensic imaging.¹³ The city retained the outside law firm Forsgren Fisher McCalmont DeMarea Tysver. Its initial report in mid-July 2025 found “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the allegations of sexual relationships with subordinates.⁸

The Whistleblower

In December 2025, a department whistleblower gave investigators an audio recording dated June 13, 2025, on which O’Hara’s longtime driver, Officer Abdisamad Ahmed, could be heard discussing efforts to “straighten out the story” of a recruit who had allegedly been involved with the chief. The recording prompted the firm to reopen the investigation.⁸

A 32-page draft lawsuit prepared by attorney Chris Madel and sent to city attorneys on April 22, 2026 alleged that the whistleblower had been subjected to retaliation, a hostile work environment, and a “forcible transfer” while on parental leave for cooperating with investigators. The draft also accused Ahmed of repairing a crashed city vehicle “off the books” after a purported drunken driving incident involving O’Hara, and of “double-dipping” by working off-duty while being paid city overtime, with O’Hara allegedly hiding Ahmed’s schedule in the department’s time management system. The lawsuit has not been filed in court, and the whistleblower’s identity has not been publicly disclosed.¹⁴

What the Updated Report Found

The firm’s updated report, released on May 26, 2026, kept the original conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of a sexually intimate relationship with any city employee. But it found that O’Hara had “knowingly and intentionally” interfered with the probe in two ways: he deleted a contact card for a material witness from his city-issued phone “in an attempt to shield evidence,” and he discussed the investigation with a city employee after being explicitly instructed to keep it confidential.¹⁵ The firm also determined that O’Hara had been untruthful during an April 17, 2026 interview regarding text messages he sent to a young recruit.¹⁴

Renomination, Then Resignation

Frey had publicly renominated O’Hara for a second term on May 7, 2026, two weeks after city attorneys received the whistleblower’s draft lawsuit. Several council members had already raised concerns, citing more than a dozen open complaints against O’Hara and a department that had exceeded its 2025 budget by more than $19 million in overtime.¹⁶ A confirmation hearing was tentatively set for June 9, but the council never voted.

On May 26, Frey told O’Hara about the report’s findings and said he would move to discipline him “up to and including discharge.” O’Hara resigned immediately. Frey issued a written reprimand stating that O’Hara’s conduct “demonstrates poor judgment, is inconsistent with the level of integrity this role requires, and has made it extraordinarily difficult for you to continue effectively in your role.”¹⁷ At a press conference the next day, Frey said: “Trust is not secondary to the job. It is the job,” and added that if he had known earlier what the investigators later found, he would not have renominated him.¹³

At the time of his departure, O’Hara was the subject of 17 additional open personnel complaints, which the city has not described. Those investigations are continuing.¹⁵ Through his attorney, O’Hara released a statement on May 27 that did not address the interference findings. It pointed to reductions in violent crime, growth in department size, progress on community trust, and his handling of the federal immigration surge, and said the “circumstances should not define his service.”¹⁸

What Happened After

Frey appointed Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell as acting chief on May 26. Blackwell, a Minneapolis native and 24-year MPD veteran who had served as a prosecution expert in the Derek Chauvin trials, led the department for about a week. On June 2, 2026, Bill Peterson, a 30-year department veteran who heads the First Precinct, was named interim chief. Peterson has said he is not interested in the permanent job, and Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette has said the search for a permanent chief could take six months.¹⁹

Officer Abdisamad Ahmed, O’Hara’s driver, was relieved of duty and placed on paid leave on May 29, 2026. He had not previously been disciplined despite being questioned by investigators months earlier. Ahmed, who joined the department via lateral transfer in 2021, has been the subject of at least 18 complaints, seven of which remained open as of June 2026.²⁰

Within weeks of leaving, O’Hara launched the O’Hara Leadership Group, a consulting and advisory firm that, according to its website, works with organizations on crisis leadership, organizational transformation, and workforce development. He also offers keynote speaking, with recent engagements listed at the Public Safety Summit at Harvard, the FBI National Academy Associates, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.²¹

1
U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey. U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger Recognizes Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara
2
NJ.com. Before He Became the Chief of Police in Minneapolis, He Was a Newark Cop
3
The Trace. Newark Police Consent Decree Progress
4
CBS News Minnesota. Minneapolis Mayor Frey Announcement on Police Chief Brian O’Hara
5
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. In Conversation With the New Minneapolis Police Chief
6
PBS NewsHour. New Minneapolis Police Chief on Changing the Department After George Floyd’s Murder
7
Police Executive Research Forum. Trending – September 2025
8
Star Tribune. Investigations and New Evidence: What Led to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s Downfall
9
City of Minneapolis. Consent Decree
10
CBS News Minnesota. Minneapolis Police Department Consent Decree Reform Report
11
MPR News. Minneapolis Police Participation With Homeland Security Task Force Raises Concerns
12
Governing. Minneapolis Chief on Policing a City in Chaos
13
KSTP. City Council Members: Brian O’Hara Out as Minneapolis Police Chief
14
Star Tribune. Document Details Numerous Whistleblower Allegations Against Chief O’Hara and Top Staff
15
CNN. Minneapolis Police Chief Resigns
16
Star Tribune. Mayor Jacob Frey Nominate Police Chief O’Hara
17
New York Times. Minneapolis Police Chief Resigns
18
CBS News Minnesota. Minneapolis Police Chief O’Hara Resignation Statement
19
CBS News Minnesota. Bill Peterson Interim Minneapolis Police Chief
20
Star Tribune. Ex-Chief Brian O’Hara’s Driver Placed on Leave From Police Duties Amid Misconduct Investigation
21
KSTP. Brian O’Hara Launches Consulting Firm After MPD Resignation