MPD Chief Brian O'Hara on 2025 crime: 'Our city is becoming safer every day'

MPD chief says 2025 crime went down despite fewer officers

Despite seven mass shootings, including the Aug. 27 tragedy at Annunciation Church and School, serious street crime in the City of Minneapolis declined last year. That’s according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who gave a review of 2025 crime Tuesday at the new First Precinct building in downtown Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Despite seven mass shootings, including the Aug. 27 tragedy at Annunciation Church and School, serious street crime in the City of Minneapolis declined last year.

That’s according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who gave a review of 2025 crime Tuesday at the new First Precinct building in downtown Minneapolis.

"The overall data tells a very clear story that the City of Minneapolis is moving in the right direction. Our city is becoming safer every day," O’Hara said.

MPD Chief O'Hara details 2025 street crime numbers

Despite seven mass shootings, including the Aug. 27 tragedy at Annunciation Church and School, serious street crime in the City of Minneapolis declined last year. Police Chief Brian O'Hara on Tuesday detailed the city's street crime numbers for 2025.

Minneapolis crime rates

By the numbers:

O’Hara said overall crime decreased in 2025. Here is a look at the numbers:

• There were 64 homicides in Minneapolis in 2025, down from 77 in 2024. That’s also 32 fewer than when violence peaked in 2021.
• Gunshot wound victims were down 18% from 2024, including the Annunciation mass shooting and other mass shootings in Minneapolis. There were 68 fewer shooting victims in 2025, and 347 fewer shootings compared to 2021.
• Gunshot victims were down 33% in the Third Precinct in 2025, and 42% in the Fourth Precinct. The Fifth Precinct, if not for the Annunciation shooting, would also have seen a decrease in gun violence.
• In 2021, Minneapolis was the only major city in the country to have more shooting victims than there were sworn officers within the department.
• 2025 marked the lowest number ever for shooting victims in north Minneapolis.
• There were 1,085 reported robberies in 2025. That’s down 50% from 2021.
• Carjackings were down 73% in 2025, despite several crime sprees throughout the city last year.
• There were 2,401 reports of burglaries in 2025, down 10% from 2024, a total of 193 fewer burglaries.
• Aggravated assault was down 9%, resulting in 146 fewer victims than in 2024.

Hiring and response time

Why you should care:

O’Hara says the Minneapolis Police Department has been slowly gaining officers since an exodus after the riots following George Floyd’s death in 2020. For the first time in 2024, the department ended with more officers from when it started. They hired 174 sworn officers, and lost 49.

The charter minimum for Minneapolis police is 731 officers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they typically had about 900 officers. The next graduating class has 21 recruits, with another 30–40 in the following class.

Before June 2020, when crime was lower and the department had more officers, the response to a "Priority 1" call was just under seven minutes. In the years since, that’s grown to an average of almost 10 minutes.

Since implementing new response protocols, O’Hara says in the fourth quarter of 2025, they got very close to getting back to a seven-minute response time.

O’Hara’s plea to ICE, protesters

What they're saying:

Chief O’Hara ended Tuesday’s meeting with a plea to federal agents and those protesting immigration arrests: Keep the peace.

Around 2,000 more federal agents have been deployed to the Twin Cities for an immigration operation.

"I’ve been concerned for weeks that, because the issue is so emotional, the way some of this stuff has been carried out, the greatest risk to me is that there would be unrest or there would be a tragedy. Somebody could get seriously hurt or killed because of what’s happening," O’Hara said on Tuesday. "To members of the community who have a constitutional right to observe, record and object to the conduct of law enforcement, that you do so peacefully in our community. A lot of businesses in the immigrant community are on Lake Street. We all know Lake Street burned five years ago, and it’s largely the immigrant community that rebuilt that street. So please don’t come into our neighborhoods and cause destruction because of what’s going on. If you’re going to object to it, do it peacefully."

O’Hara says his biggest fear is that a clash between ICE agents and protesters could turn deadly. Lake Street became the epicenter of protests after George Floyd’s death, and immigrants have since spent that time rebuilding the city and community.