Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s attorney released his first public statement Wednesday, one day after O’Hara resigned amid an investigation into his conduct.
“The circumstances should not define his service,” read the statement delivered through his attorney, who added that O’Hara was “proud to serve Minneapolis” and remained “grateful to the officers and community partners who did difficult work under extraordinary pressure.”
The statement did not address the investigation into O’Hara’s conduct, and his attorney did not provide further details about it. The statement instead touted a reduction in violent crime and growth in the size of the Minneapolis Police Department during O’Hara’s tenure. The statement said O’Hara also made “significant progress” in rebuilding community trust and navigated a recent “Metro Surge” by federal immigration agents.
O’Hara resigned on Tuesday as Mayor Jacob Frey announced the departure at a press conference. Frey said an investigation found O’Hara had interfered with a prior investigation that included allegations he “engaged in sexual intimate relationships” with at least one city employee.
Specifically, Frey said investigators found O’Hara “knowingly and intentionally” deleted a contact card for a city employee from his city-issued cell phone during the original investigation, “in an attempt to shield that evidence” of his connection to the employee from investigators. O’Hara also told another city employee that his phone had been taken for the investigation, despite explicit instructions not to discuss the matter with anyone, Frey said.
“Although the investigators have concluded that the underlying allegations from the original investigation remain not substantiated, your interference with the investigation risked the integrity of the investigation and constitutes a significant breach of trust,” Frey’s written reprimand to O’Hara said.
Frey framed the resignation as a matter of trust.
“When you serve as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, trust is not secondary to the job, it is the job,” Frey said. “When trust is broken, it becomes extremely difficult to continue leading effectively.”
Katie Blackwell, assistant chief of operations for Minneapolis police, will serve as acting chief of the department.
O’Hara was hired in 2022 following a nationwide search, arriving roughly two and a half years after George Floyd’s murder as Minneapolis confronted rising violent crime, a depleted police force and a crisis of public trust in policing, according to the statement from his attorney.
The statement said O’Hara looks forward to returning to his young family in New Jersey, though no timeline for his departure was disclosed.
Cole Premo and
contributed to this report.
