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Mayor Frey puts Chief Brian O'Hara up for another term as Minneapolis PD Chief
Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Thursday he would renominate Chief Brian O'Hara to another four-year term leading the Minneapolis Police Department.
Mayor Frey puts Chief Brian O'Hara up for another term as Minneapolis PD Chief
By Howard ThompsonPublished May 7, 2026 9:31am CDT
Minneapolis
FOX 9
Mayor Frey re-nominates Chief O'Hara for new term
Mayor Frey announced on Thursday that he would re-nominate Chief O'Hara to serve another four-year term as Minneapolis police chief.
The Brief
- Mayor Jacob Frey has re-nominated Chief Brian O'Hara for another four-year term as Minneapolis Police Chief.
- The mayor credits O'Hara with overseeing a dramatic turnaround of the police department during a tumultuous period following the pandemic.
- The City Council has not yet indicated support for O'Hara's nomination, while Public Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette's appointment remains in limbo.
Mayor nominates O'Hara for new term
What we know:Mayor Frey announced on Thursday that he would renominate Chief O'Hara to serve another four-year term as police chief.
The mayor says he sent a letter to council on Wednesday to move the process forward and spoke with several council members, including Council President Elliott Payne, in hopes of garnering support for O'Hara's nomination.
The backstory:
Mayor Frey pointed out that Chief O'Hara has overseen a dramatic turnaround of the police department during a tumultuous time following the pandemic.
Last year, Minneapolis saw 64 homicides, down 33 percent from the pandemic high in 2021, the year before O'Hara was hired. For the start of 2026, the mayor notes that shootings in north Minneapolis are at an all-time low.
The mayor also says that applications to become a Minneapolis police officer have grown dramatically, allowing the department to move closer to reaching its charter requirements and his goal of 800 sworn officers.
O'Hara criticism
Big picture view:O'Hara has faced stiff criticism in recent weeks for comments he made about the Davis Moturi shooting and the death of Allison Lussier. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the chief partially blamed Moturi for causing his own shooting. Later, the chief admitted the police department had failed Moturi.
In the Lussier case, the chief said that Lussier had "massive" amounts of fentanyl in her system when she died. While toxicology reports did show Lussier did have drugs in her system, the medical examiner's report showed Lussier died from bleeding in her brain – not drugs. The police department is now treating her death as a homicide case.
In both cases, the city auditor said the chief made harmful public statements. During a public hearing on the review of the cases, Chief O'Hara issued a direct apology to the Lussier family for the comments he made about her death.
Council support?
What they're saying:Speaking Thursday morning, Frey didn't want to say whether the council said they would support moving forward with O'Hara's nomination.
"If the council chooses not to support this nomination, they need to be very clear-eyed about the consequences," said Frey. "It means perhaps more than a year of uncertainty and transition. It also means losing critical momentum at a time when consistency matters most. Chief O'Hara has earned respect from officers, from community members, and I've seen firsthand how much people in this city trust this leadership that we have now. Leadership from these two individuals has been critical in getting through these crises. I think people see it, and I certainly know it. Minneapolis cannot afford to hit the reset button right now. We've got to move forward. The data backs it up. The results are clear."
What's next:
Speaking Thursday, the mayor said he didn't want to speak on behalf of the council on whether they said they would support O'Hara's nomination.
Frey's appointment of his public safety commissioner, Toddrick Barnette, remains in limbo – though it could be resolved as early as Thursday. Barnette's appointment was voted down by the council, but that decision was then vetoed by the mayor. As a result, Barnette is still serving as the public safety commissioner in an interim role.
The council has until August 3 to decide on Barnette's future. If no decision is reached by August 3, Barnette would be removed as commissioner. However, Mayor Frey has the power to appoint Barnette's replacement and could just reappoint Barnette to the job – which would seemingly restart the whole process.
By the numbers:
One of the major factors council members cited in voting down Barnette was police overtime costs during the ICE surge in January and February. The department racked up millions in overtime over the course of weeks, and the council was upset that leaders failed to warn them about the mounting costs that are now stressing the city's budget