MPD's top cop reflects on the challenges of 2024
MINNEAPOLIS — On Monday, a tentative deal between the city of Minneapolis and the U.S. Justice Department could bring expansive police reforms. This comes nearly five years after George Floyd was killed.
Mayor Jacob Frey called for a special meeting with City Council members. The special meeting will be a closed-door session at 8:30 a.m.
The city said the council will be briefed on the DOJ's potential litigation and resolution possibilities concerning the city and the police department.
In a one-on-one interview, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara looked back at the challenges among the force in 2024 and what's to come.
"There are a number of positive achievements, but very clearly significant challenges remain," O'Hara said.
Challenges among the force follow the murder of Officer Jamal Mitchell, who was killed while responding to a shooting. Minneapolis also saw four more homicides than in 2023.
The city's top cop says that's for many reasons, including an increase in shootings and homicides in or near homeless encampments at a time when officer numbers are low.
"The police department reached its lowest staffing level in at least four decades this past year," O'Hara said.
But he says the department saw promising progress as officers cracked down on crime, utilizing a new protocols and bolstering community partnerships.
In 2024, nearly 1,000 guns were recovered, carjackings went down from 305 in 2023 to 279 and the city saw fewer shooting victims.
This year, investigators also confiscated more than five pounds of narcotics, 1,200 fentanyl pills and $10,000.
O'Hara is now ready to walk into closed door meeting with the city and the justice department regarding a federal consent decree, a legal document mandating major changes in the department.
He took to YouTube to address his department, saying he knows this process — as he's been through it before — can bring challenges but also opportunities.
In 2023, the DOJ issued a harsh 89-page report that showed a yearslong pattern of racial discrimination. The department found MPD used excessive force, including unjustified deadly force, and discriminated against Black and Native American people, as well as people with behavioral health disabilities.
The Minneapolis Police Department is already required to make changes under a separate, court-supervised deal with the state.
That agreement limits when officers can use force and bans certain stops and searches.
O'Hara is ultimately ready to lead his department going far beyond the expectations of the consent decree and working towards a better future.
"I want what's right for our officers and what's right for our community and that is changing how people are experience policing on the street," he said.
