Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Tuesday night that Police Chief Brian O’Hara will no longer serve as the head of the city’s police department, ending a tenure that had already been thrown into doubt by a private investigation and a fresh finding that he interfered with it.

Frey said his office accepted O’Hara’s resignation after the chief was told he would face discipline, including possible discharge. The mayor called the situation “extremely difficult” and said the interference was a “breach of trust,” adding, “We did not know then what we do know now.”

The decision came less than three weeks after Frey re-nominated O’Hara for another four-year term. On Tuesday, the mayor said plainly that if he had known earlier what the later investigation found, “I would not have nominated him.” Assistant Minneapolis Police Chief Katie Blackwell will step into the role in the interim.

The episode began last year, when Frey’s office received an anonymous complaint alleging that O’Hara had engaged in sexual relationships with city employees. An outside investigation cleared him of those initial allegations. But a subsequent report said O’Hara had interfered with the process, accusing him of deleting a contact in his city-issued cellphone that was then hidden from investigators in an attempt to shield himself.

O’Hara took over the department from Medaria Arradondo, who was chief on May 25, 2020, when George Floyd was murdered. Before O’Hara, Amelia Huffman served in an interim role. His departure now lands in a city still living with the political and public-safety consequences of that period, and with the police department under pressure from a string of crises that included Operation Metro Surge, the Annunciation school shooting, rising homeless encampments and scrutiny over the aftermath of Floyd’s death as reforms stalled and disputes over enforcement intensified.

The department also drew criticism from some groups that said O’Hara should have done more to intervene during the increased presence of federal agents. Separately, it faced criticism over its handling of the shooting of Davis Moturi. Through all of it, O’Hara remained a visible face of the city’s attempt to steady a department that has been asked to respond to violent crime, political anger and shifting expectations at the same time.

The timing matters because Minneapolis is still measuring progress against a brutal recent past. The city recorded 64 homicides in 2025, down 33% from the pandemic high in 2021, but the numbers have not erased the pressure on city leaders to show control and credibility. Frey’s announcement puts Blackwell in charge at a moment when the department cannot afford a prolonged vacuum at the top.

That leaves the most important question answered, at least for now: O’Hara is out because Frey concluded that the trust required to keep him in the job had been broken, and the mayor said the office now knows enough to say he should never have been renominated in the first place.