Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara sharing crime statistics on Tuesday, and sharing some good news for the city.
"The overall data tells a very clear story that the city of Minneapolis is moving in the right direction," O'Hara said.
He adds they have seen a remarkable decrease in street crime.
"Not just 2025 compared to 2024, but putting things into perspective how significant the decrease has been since the height of many of these crimes and in some cases it's significantly below what was normal here prior to the pandemic. In some categories we're below 2019."
O'Hara also announced some leadership changes within the department for 2026. They'll also form a new Major Crimes Division, according to the Star Tribune.
But, as O'Hara noted, there are still serious challenges for the police department in Minneapolis.
"Clearly we have challenges, very significant challenges," O'Hara said. "The department today remains staffed significantly lower than it had been historically, about 300 officers smaller than what had been normal here prior to the increase in crime. But despite that, we are making progress preventing crime and also advancing reforms that are required under a consent decree. And those trends that we're going to see are the direct result of the hard work from the men and women of the police department as well as the community leaders and different community organizations that are here with us today."
But for a city that had serious issues with violent crime in 2021, it's a win for O'Hara and his department.
"Last year there were 12 fewer murders in the city. That's 32 lives saved compared to the peak in 2021," he said. "In terms of gunshot wound victims, we're down 18% from last year. That's even with the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School as well as a few other mass shootings, it's overall 68 fewer victims. But what's most significant is there were 347 fewer shootings last year compared to where we were in 2021 at the peak."
O'Hara also says robberies are way down, dropping 50% compared to the peak numbers of 2021.
"Just compared to last year, there have been 518 fewer robbery victims in the city," says O'Hara. "Which actually robbery overall last year was 19% below what it was in 2019. So it's a very, very significant difference."
One neighborhood in particular that has benefited from the decrease in violent crime is North Minneapolis.
"For as long as the city of Minneapolis counted the number of shooting victims separately from the charge of assault, last year was the lowest number of shooting victims ever in North Minneapolis," O'Hara added.