Thirty complaints have been filed against MPD Chief Brian O’Hara—and mostly ignored by the media

Alpha News has been tracking the dozens of complaints racking up against Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara—and how Mayor Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis City Council, and the mainstream media seem to be ignoring them, despite all the talk about transparency and accountability.

Thirty complaints have been filed against Chief O’Hara during his tenure, which amounts to a little more than three years at this point.

To gain insight and perspective on the situation, Dr. Travis Yates, an expert on police training and leadership and a retired police major, joined Liz Collin on her podcast.

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His first term as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department technically expired at the end of January 2026. Mayor Jacob Frey has yet to recommend Chief O’Hara to the city council for confirmation to a second term.

As for the complaints against O’Hara, according to the city’s officer complaint history dashboard, eight complaints have been closed “with no discipline.” However, 22 complaints remain “open” and under investigation.

Alpha News reached out to Chief O’Hara’s office and the office of Mayor Frey with questions about the significant number of complaints against the chief—and whether these may affect his chances of serving another term.

Although Chief O’Hara has opined about the “willingness to hold ourselves accountable,” he did not reply.

Instead, Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette said, “Chief O’Hara has made significant progress bringing on new officers, building one of the most diverse departments in years, and strengthening community trust. He’s moving Minneapolis in the right direction. The mere existence of complaints is not an indication of wrongdoing.”

However, multiple sources have confirmed to Alpha News that there are serious allegations against Chief O’Hara that include hostile work environment complaints, HR complaints, and code of conduct complaints.

As Dr. Yates explained, “Chiefs across the country, including Chief O’Hara, have always talked about accountability and transparency … 30 complaints against anybody in such a short period of time is pretty shocking.”

Dr. Yates pointed out another significant aspect: “You have to take those complaints in context. But the fact that nobody knows anything about them — the public hasn’t been made aware of them — the fact that the chief has shown no transparency whatsoever about what’s happening. It’s also pretty shocking.”

He also explained that even if the complaints are little more than allegations, it is nevertheless important to address them. “We don’t know if there’s any validity to these complaints, but what concerns me is the pattern and practice of these complaints. There is no pressing matter more than a police chief of a major city that has any number of complaints,” Yates said.

Yates highlighted a key point about police leadership, or the lack of it, and said “even though the mainstream media may not be reporting on it, I think it’s any leader’s job to be transparent about this to the public. Because if they aren’t, they’re going to find out about it in another way and looks like they are now.”

Why keep complaint investigations open for so long?

Another telling aspect for Dr. Yates involves the fact that so many complaints are open and still under investigation.

“If you don’t close complaints … you can then tell the public, we can’t comment on these complaints. You can sort of hide what’s going on,” Dr. Yates explained.

For comparison and perspective, Minnesota’s left-wing media seemed obsessed with reporting that former MPD officer Derek Chauvin had 18 complaints during his 19-year career. While the city hired a law firm to investigate the first three complaints against Chief O’Hara, they have been relatively silent about the fact that Chief O’Hara has 30 complaints in about three years.

“I’ll first reference Chauvin’s complaints. First off, any street cop in any urban environment, they’re going to get these complaints. I always thought it was wild that they made a big deal about these complaints because most of them, he was found to not have done anything wrong,” Yates said.

“But there’s usually accountability for just flat-out false complaints. So, it’s hard to understand how there would be 22 outstanding and we don’t know anything about it,” he explained further.

Meanwhile, crime remains a concern in Minnesota’s largest city. There were nearly 100 vehicles stolen last weekend in Minneapolis and six shootings, including a mass shooting involving four teenagers.

“I think most of the public understands that the job of a police leader is for crime control and to make the public safe … but crime is completely out of control. The morale of the officers is completely lost,” Yates said.

Chief O’Hara: A political pawn in the end?

“Regarding Chief O’Hara,” Dr. Yates continued, “I don’t think he’s a police chief. I don’t think he’s acting as a police chief. I think it’s been pretty clear through the years that he’s a political pawn, he’s a political appointee. He does the will of the politicians in that city.”

“I think everybody across the country sees that Minneapolis is not like most cities,” he said. “Chaos is sort of what reigns, just look at what we’ve seen on our TVs in the last few months … the public thinks they have a police chief, but a police chief really is about crime control, crime reduction, doing the police practices it takes to keep their officers safe and to keep their citizens safe. And it appears from the outside, that they’re doing exactly the opposite.”

Liz Collin

Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.

Dr. JC Chaix

Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” and “Minnesota v We the People.”