City Council Approves Brian O’Hara for Mpls Police Chief
Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 2:23PM
The City Council has approved Mayor Jacob Frey’s nomination of Brian O’Hara to serve as police chief. O’Hara joins the City after serving as deputy mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in charge of overseeing strategic public safety initiatives. He officially starts Monday, Nov. 7.
In 2001, O’Hara joined the Newark Police Department as a police officer, rising through the ranks to become a captain in 2016. In 2021, he was appointed as the public safety director for Newark overseeing more than 1,960 employees including 996 sworn police officers, 611 firefighters and 346 civilian employees and a budget that exceeded $200 million. In that role, O’Hara enhanced the collaborative working relationships among federal, state and local partners.
As former captain of the Newark Police Department’s Consent Decree & Planning Division (2017-2020), O’Hara worked extensively with the Department of Justice on the 2016 consent decree between the U.S. and the City of Newark.
The chief of police position is a four-year appointment.
Watch today's press conference following O'Hara's confirmation.
