The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, who drew national attention for taking the reins of a department reeling after the murder of George Floyd, resigned on Tuesday after a personnel investigation into his conduct, the city announced.
Records obtained by The New York Times showed that Mr. O’Hara had received a written reprimand from Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday for what he described as “serious misconduct.”
An investigative report commissioned by the city found that Mr. O’Hara had likely deleted a contact from his phone last year while facing a previous internal investigation into allegations that he had sexual relationships with city workers. The report found no evidence that Mr. O’Hara had engaged in any such relationships, but said the apparent deletion of that contact likely amounted to interference in the initial investigation.
“Your behavior, as substantiated by the investigation, demonstrates poor judgment, is inconsistent with the level of integrity this role requires, and has made it extraordinarily difficult for you to continue effectively in your role,” Mr. Frey wrote in his letter on Tuesday.
Mr. O’Hara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jennifer Lor, a city spokeswoman, said that Mr. O’Hara was the subject of 17 additional personnel complaints that remain open, though she would not describe them. She said reviews into those complaints would continue.
When he was hired in November 2022, Mr. O’Hara inherited a police force in crisis.
Resignations were piling up, mistrust was rampant and a state report had found that the department had engaged in racially discriminatory policing, failed to hold officers accountable for misconduct and used fake social media accounts to target Black people and organizations.
Many in Minneapolis doubted whether the department should even exist. Shortly after Mr. Floyd’s death, a majority of City Council members backed disbanding the police department. In 2021, Minneapolis voters decided to keep the department, even as many expressed deep dissatisfaction with the way their city had been patrolled.
More recently, Mr. O’Hara received extensive national news coverage during a federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota by the Trump administration. That campaign, which the administration said was necessary to root out illegal immigration and fraud, touched off widespread protests and led to three shootings by agents. The police chief was searingly critical of the conduct of the federal agents who were sent to Minnesota starting late last year. He asserted that agents had engaged in widespread racial profiling and that they had used excessive force in interactions with residents.
Mr. O’Hara weathered other crises during his time in Minneapolis. Last August, he and his department were praised for the speedy response to a shooting at a church that left two children dead and several wounded.
Violent crime declined in the city during Mr. O’Hara’s tenure, a trend also reported in other large American cities in recent years. But he faced criticism for a surge in overtime spending, which the city partly attributed to challenges that emerged during the immigration crackdown.
Mr. O’Hara arrived in Minneapolis after rising through the ranks of the police department in Newark, where he also served as public safety director and deputy mayor.
In Minneapolis, he was a highly visible police chief who spoke about rebuilding community trust and reinvigorating a department burdened by turnover. This month, Mr. Frey had nominated him for a second term leading the police department.
“Chief O’Hara is the right leader for this moment and for this city,” Mr. Frey said at the time. “Minneapolis didn’t ask for small steps — we demanded real, measurable change. And under his leadership, that’s exactly what we’ve been seeing.”
Mr. Frey said that Katie Blackwell, an assistant police chief, would serve as acting chief, and that there would be a search for a permanent replacement.
