Five years after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the city is still reckoning with the calls for police reform that followed.
Police chief Brian O’Hara, who was sworn in in November 2022, has been adamant about implementing changes from within that lead to safer streets and more positive interactions with Minneapolis police.
Still, O’Hara said Floyd’s death is still an “open wound” in the city. While police data shows shootings are trending down, Minneapolis is one of the few major cities where violent crime has not improved much since 2020, according to an analysis of the Major Cities Chiefs Association violent crime report. Crime in the city “skyrocketed” after Floyd’s death and the protests that followed, O’Hara said, while “the numbers of the police force just diminished.”
“People have a very, very basic need to feel safe, and that has been taken away for a lot of people because of everything that’s happened since,” said O’Hara.
“I go to these crime scenes. I’ve been standing there, boys, teenagers, men are dead in the street, and moms behind the crime scene tape wailing, and I’m going through my head thinking, ‘We’ve had so many murders already this week, what happens if someone else dies?'” O’Hara said. “We don’t have enough homicide investigators. I mean, it’s been that critical at times. The urgency of the problem is real.”
Still, O’Hara is determined to make a difference with the resources he does have. He has focused on “getting back to the basics” and ensuring that “everything we do revolves around both reducing crime while earning trust with the community.”
O’Hara has also worked to “restore some pride in this profession” to try to draw more officers back to the job, and tried to change the culture in the department. Minneapolis police have also adjusted arrest tactics and are working on community engagement and officer training.
“In my experience, the people who are here today are dramatically different from the impression that I had of this department in 2020,” O’Hara said.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department announced it was ending investigations of six police agencies and canceling consent decrees proposed for Louisville and Minneapolis. O’Hara said that reform efforts will continue, even without the federal oversight. The Minneapolis City Council approved the consent decree in January.
“The new chief did a great, great job, because what I see now is, before, police used to pull over everybody, the kids on the street, they used to use a lot of difficult stuff, you know?” Mohammed said. “A lot of big things changed, that’s what I see.”
