A sudden leadership change has put one of Minneapolis’ most visible police officials in charge of the city’s police department. Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell is now serving as acting chief after Mayor Jacob Frey announced Brian O’Hara’s resignation on May 27.
Blackwell steps in as Minneapolis changes leadership
Blackwell assumed the top role on an acting basis immediately after O’Hara’s departure, according to Mayor Frey’s announcement and subsequent local reporting. Frey said Blackwell was prepared to lead the department while the city begins searching for longer-term leadership, a transition that comes at a sensitive time for Minneapolis policing. The department remains under intense public scrutiny years after the murder of George Floyd and amid continued debate over accountability, reform and public safety.
The leadership switch followed O’Hara’s resignation rather than a formal disciplinary process. The Associated Press reported that Frey said O’Hara chose to resign after the mayor determined discipline was warranted over interference in an internal investigation into O’Hara’s conduct. Frey said public trust required decisive action, framing the resignation as necessary to preserve confidence in city leadership and in the police department itself.
Local outlets reported that Blackwell will serve in the role while the administration identifies an interim or permanent successor, with the city charter shaping the next steps. KSTP reported that Frey has 30 days to nominate a successor, adding urgency to a process that is likely to draw close attention from the City Council, police reform advocates and rank-and-file officers. MPR News also reported that council members quickly began pressing for a collaborative search and fuller disclosure about the circumstances surrounding O’Hara’s exit.
For residents, the appointment matters because Blackwell is not a newcomer. She has been a familiar public-facing figure during some of the city’s most difficult police moments, including high-profile incidents, reform discussions and operational updates. Her promotion to acting chief gives the city a leader with institutional knowledge at a moment when officials are trying to project continuity while confronting another destabilizing controversy at the top of the department.
Why O’Hara resigned and what investigators found
O’Hara’s resignation stemmed from findings that he interfered with an investigation into allegations involving relationships with city employees. According to the Associated Press, the underlying accusations of intimate relationships were not substantiated, but investigators concluded that O’Hara improperly inserted himself into the process. That distinction is significant: the mayor’s action was tied not to proven misconduct in the alleged relationships themselves, but to conduct during the investigation.
The Associated Press reported that a written reprimand accused O’Hara of deleting a contact card from his city-issued phone in an attempt to shield evidence and of informing another city employee about the investigation after being directed to keep it confidential. Frey said those actions undermined trust and justified discipline that could have included termination. Rather than contest the discipline in office, O’Hara resigned.
The fallout did not end with his resignation. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told the Associated Press that 17 other complaints against O’Hara remain open and will continue to be investigated. The nature of those complaints has not been publicly detailed, but their existence ensures that questions about O’Hara’s tenure are likely to continue even after his exit from City Hall.
The resignation was especially striking because O’Hara had been a central figure in Minneapolis policing since his 2022 hiring. He was brought in to help lead the department through a reform era shaped by federal and state oversight efforts, depleted staffing and deep political divisions over policing. His abrupt departure now leaves the city balancing two competing priorities at once: maintaining continuity in daily police operations and persuading a skeptical public that accountability rules apply even at the highest levels of the department.
Who Katie Blackwell is and why her role matters
Blackwell brings more than two decades of Minneapolis Police Department experience to the acting chief’s office. MPR News reported that she has served as assistant chief of operations since 2023. The same report said she joined the department in 1999 as a civilian employee, became a Community Service Officer in 2000 and was sworn in as a police officer in 2002, giving her a long institutional history inside the agency she now leads.
Her rise has also been shaped by Minneapolis’ most consequential policing crises. The Star Tribune reported that Blackwell, once largely behind the scenes, became much more publicly recognizable after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 thrust department leaders into international scrutiny. Since then, she has often appeared before cameras and at official briefings, helping explain police operations and respond to developing controversies in a city where police messaging is routinely dissected by activists, residents and elected officials.
That familiarity could be both an asset and a challenge. On one hand, Blackwell knows the department’s structure, personnel and reform obligations in detail, which may help stabilize internal operations after O’Hara’s resignation. On the other, she inherits an agency where any top official is immediately assessed through the lens of past misconduct cases, reform commitments and trust deficits that predate both her and O’Hara.
Questions about Blackwell herself are also likely to draw attention as she steps into the spotlight. MPR News noted that complaints have been filed against her, underscoring that leadership in Minneapolis policing comes with intense scrutiny at every level. Even so, Frey publicly backed her to guide the department through the immediate transition, and local coverage has portrayed her as a seasoned insider capable of keeping the agency functioning while the city determines what sort of permanent leadership it wants next.
Reform pressures, politics and the department’s next phase
Blackwell takes over at a time when Minneapolis police leadership is inseparable from larger reform battles. O’Hara had been hired in the aftermath of sweeping calls for accountability and structural change following Floyd’s murder, and his tenure unfolded amid federal and state efforts to overhaul police practices. The city entered into a reform agreement with the federal government last year, though the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump later canceled that agreement, adding another layer of uncertainty to the city’s reform path.
Even without that federal track, Minneapolis remains under pressure to demonstrate sustained change in training, supervision and use-of-force practices. The department must do that while also managing daily public safety demands and a workforce that has been under strain for years. Axios noted that the city is still trying to rebuild depleted ranks, meaning the next chief will have to address not only public trust and political legitimacy but also staffing, retention and morale inside the department.
City politics are also likely to shape the transition. MPR News reported that some council members and community groups responded sharply to the news of O’Hara’s departure and the details surrounding the investigation. By the following day, council leaders were already calling for a collaborative process in choosing new police leadership and for broader disclosure about what city officials knew and when they knew it.
That political backdrop means Blackwell’s tenure as acting chief is more than a temporary personnel move. It is part of a broader power struggle over who gets to define public safety in Minneapolis and how much control the mayor should have over police leadership decisions. Every operational decision Blackwell makes in the coming days could be interpreted not just as routine management, but as a signal of whether the department is headed toward continuity, reform acceleration or another period of institutional conflict.
What comes next for Minneapolis and for Blackwell
In the immediate term, Blackwell’s job is to keep the department running and reassure both officers and residents that daily policing will continue without interruption. KSTP reported that Blackwell said, “We will continue moving forward,” a brief but pointed message aimed at conveying continuity after a bruising leadership scandal. For a city accustomed to police upheaval, even a simple promise of operational steadiness carries weight.
The search for a longer-term chief now becomes one of the city’s most important personnel decisions of the year. Frey will face pressure to move quickly but also carefully, especially after backing O’Hara for another term not long before the resignation. According to local reporting, council leaders want a larger role in shaping the selection, and community advocates are likely to demand a candidate who can demonstrate both managerial competence and credibility on reform.
For Blackwell, the acting appointment creates both opportunity and exposure. If she manages the transition effectively, she could strengthen her standing as a credible contender for broader leadership, whether in Minneapolis or elsewhere. But every unresolved issue facing the department — from reform benchmarks to officer discipline to community trust — now lands more squarely on her desk, and acting leaders often have to make consequential decisions without the full political runway afforded to permanent appointees.
The larger question for Minneapolis is whether another sudden leadership turnover deepens cynicism or prompts a reset. O’Hara’s resignation removed a chief whose exit, according to the Associated Press and local reports, was tied to interference in an internal investigation rather than routine policy disagreement. Blackwell now becomes the public face of a department trying once again to show it can function, reform and remain accountable after scandal. In that sense, her appointment is not simply a stopgap measure; it is the latest test of whether Minneapolis can stabilize a police department that has spent years at the center of national attention.
