Minneapolis police expect to commit significant focus this year to reforming systemic failures identified by a state study, while also trying to attract new officers to the force.
Reflecting on the past year and outlining goals for 2025, Chief Brian O’Hara said the department is still trying to rebuild after 2020’s mass exodus of officers in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
The department also plans to hire more staff in the new year, including more people of color. A major part of the department’s work in 2025 will be rolling out reforms as part of a court-enforced agreement, or consent decree, between the city and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. New use-of-force policies are expected to roll out this year with new training, O’Hara said.
“I think the city itself is starting to heal,” O’Hara said. “We’re starting to heal not just from the trauma of 2020, but from the trauma of all the violence and the crime that people here have been experiencing over the last few years.”
Jae Yates, an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice, said he wants the department to be more responsive to the needs of residents of color in 2025.
“Police officers continue to fail to do their jobs, and have completely different responses to community members of color versus white community members,” he said.
Cynthia Wilson, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said she’s seen some progress, but that reform is going to take time.
“It takes time to change,” she said. “I think the baby steps that [O’Hara has] taken are very fruitful for making the most impactful change, which is just dealing with humanity.”
Consent decree
In reaction to Floyd’s murder, which sparked worldwide protest, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) issued a report in 2022 showing that Minneapolis police officers routinely violated the state’s civil rights law. The city and MDHR subsequently entered into a consent decree in 2023, which requires the police department to make changes under the supervision of an independent monitor. The state agreement is set to last four years.
O’Hara said several items have to be completed before the consent decree’s one year anniversary on March 17, 2025. The department must approve new policies about deescalation, search and arrest practices, the issuing of citations, and the use of weapons like Tasers and batons, among other issues, he said.
The city also recently finished negotiating a federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, which the Minneapolis City Council approved Monday. The DOJ released a report in 2023 that found a pattern of discriminatory policing at the Minneapolis Police Department, particularly against Black and Native residents.
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Yates said he doesn’t think much has changed with Minneapolis police since Floyd’s murder. Communities of color still heavily mistrust the police, he said.
He pointed to a recent incident where Davis Moturi, a Black man, was allegedly shot by his white neighbor, John Sawchak. It took Minneapolis police several days to execute an arrest warrant on Sawchak after the shooting. Some advocates called for O’Hara to be fired after the incident.
Wilson said the police department and the Minneapolis NAACP have been working more closely together since Moturi’s shooting, and are partnering on an initiative to address neighborhood disputes. The NAACP is also working to provide officers training on how to mediate interpersonal disputes.
“For him to be willing to do that says a lot about where he wants to take the department,” Wilsons said of O’Hara.
Crime trends
Robberies, homicides and juvenile crime dominated 2024, O’Hara said, adding that he hopes the department can tackle street crime and violence in the new year.
While the amount of calls for shots fired are down, he said, the city has seen more murders in 2024 than in the previous year. As of December 19, there were 85 homicides in Minneapolis, compared to 83 at that point of 2023.
Ten homicides occurred at or near homeless encampments, O’Hara said. The city of Minneapolis carried out several evictions of homeless encampments in 2024, often citing safety and health concerns.
“That has flared up in terms of just the amount of crime that’s been generated this year,” O’Hara said of the encampments.
Yates said evicting encampments, which often serve large numbers of Indigenous residents, is not the solution.
“This is a waste of taxpayer money to continue to destroy the belongings of some of our most vulnerable residents who are struggling and who just want to be able to access services,” Yates said. “It’s compounding the actual problem. It’s making it worse instead of solving it.”
Reflecting on the past year, the killing of Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell in May was top of mind for O’Hara. Mitchell was fatally shot while responding to a shooting in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood.
“As we’re trying to rebuild, the outpouring of love that we’ve had from the community in the aftermath of that, I think, has been really incredible for us trying to heal,” he said.
Staffing goals
O’Hara said in 2020, there were about 900 officers in the department, but more than 500 officers have left since then. The department had 558 sworn officers as of December 2024, with 34 of those “on some form of leave or light duty,” according to a police spokesperson.
The department is budgeted to have 731 officers.
O’Hara said that when he stepped into the chief role in 2022, the department felt “hopeless.”
“The department was demoralized,” he said. “People here were just immensely traumatized in the community and inside in the department.”
The department plans to hire more officers in 2025.
“We’re going to have more people coming in the door, but it’s still going to get more difficult next year before it gets better,” O’Hara said.
The department has also taken steps to hire more officers of color, he added. In 2024, Minneapolis swore in its first Somali American female officer, and its first officer who is not a U.S. citizen. The department also changed its uniform policy in 2023 to allow hijabs and headscarves.
