MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis City Council has unanimously approved police chief Brian O'Hara's plan to split the police department into two bureaus, each with its own assistant chief.
He says one-half of the department would oversee police operations and crime, while the other half would oversee efforts to rebuild community trust.
"For the first time in decades, we are able to change the structure and the leadership of the Minneapolis Police Department," O'Hara said. "This change today is historic and I am excited to be able to roll this out."
Minneapolis is in fact mandated to make "transformational changes" after reaching a court-enforceable agreement with the state human rights department in spring. A court-approved that agreement last month.
A 2021-initiated U.S. Department of Justice investigation also found civil rights violations by the city and police. This past June, the DOJ and the city agreed to negotiate toward a court-enforceable consent decree with an independent monitor.
O'Hara attended Thursday's city council meeting ahead of the vote.
"You have a big, big job and you need all the support you can get," Ward 3 council member Michael Rainville told the chief.
The measure passed by a vote of 12-0 with the absence of Ward 2 council member Robin Wonsley and now moves to Mayor Jacob Frey for final review.
"I support the move of the council and support the chief," Frey told KARE 11 following the vote.
O'Hara says he plans to hire both assistant chief positions from within the MPD.
"Everything that our residents have been through as well as our officers have been through over the last three years, I'm looking for people who have deep connections to our community, that understand the resiliency of our officers, that understand the real desire for progress and change," he said. "I will be finalizing those candidates in the coming days."
Community listening sessions will also begin in the next two weeks, which is a requirement of the settlement agreement.
"That's something I believe we need to be doing anyway because we have not done anything to sufficiently address the hurt, the trauma, to begin to heal," O'Hara said.
The MPD currently has a deputy chief of patrol, a deputy chief of investigations and a deputy chief of internal affairs. Under the new structure, all three of those positions would be retitled to simply "deputy police chief." Two additional deputy chief positions would also be created, for a total of five.