In New York Times interview, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara rails against ICE tactics

In a wide-ranging interview on the New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara called last week’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good “predictable” and “entirely preventable.”

He railed on aggressive tactics employed by the influx of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swarming the Twin Cities this month at the direction of President Donald Trump, criticized the actions of the agent involved in Good’s killing and expressed fears that the behavior of federal law enforcement may undermine any public trust his department has managed to rebuild since 2020.

“It’s not necessarily about which laws are being enforced, it’s about how that enforcement is happening," O’Hara explained, noting that some methods have unnecessarily endangered lives.

A dramatic surge in 911 calls to Minneapolis police have reported arrests by ICE that left cars abandoned in the roadway, blocking traffic — sometimes with dogs still inside. In one case O’Hara referenced last week, verified by the Minnesota Star Tribune, ICE agents reportedly pulled the driver out of a vehicle before placing it in park, allowing it to roll down a south Minneapolis street into oncoming traffic.

The recent crackdown in Minnesota has placed undue stress on his already short-staffed department, O’Hara said, forcing local cops to walk a tightrope at emotionally charged scenes where they are expected to de-escalate situations involving federal agents.

“As soon as we show up, we become the target of people’s frustration,” he said during the 35-minute interview. “The cops here — we’re human beings. I worry that we might hit a breaking point.”

Reflecting on theJan.7 shooting, O’Hara acknowledged that there are universally accepted rules in law enforcement advising officers how to safely interact with motorists.

Bystander videos of the incident made O’Hara question what the ICE officers’ mission was that day, given that Good was apparently not the target for their enforcement action.

Podcast host Michael Barbaro noted that Good refused to get out of the car and appeared to disobey spoken orders from law enforcement. “Was she in the wrong?” Barbaro asked.

O’Hara declined to answer that question, instead pivoting to best practices as a police officer. Training dictates that an officer should approach the driver and introduce themself by name, rank and agency, he said, then explain why the driver was stopped.

“If a person asks you a question that is reasonable, you respond to it reasonably,” O’Hara said, noting that it can help de-escalate the encounter. “I didn’t see any of that,” he said of the ICE shooting.

“Further, it just seems like there’s confusion. … It’s not clear to me whether the two [agents] were working together and understood what each other was trying to accomplish.”

But O’Hara also said he felt empathy for the agent who fired the fatal shots, especially given that he’d been involved in a previous dragging incident last summer that left him with significant injuries. That history raised questions about ICE training, O’Hara said, and whether federal officials had done enough to ensure the safety of officer Jonathan Ross in returning him to the field for similar encounters.

“I do think they’re being forced into situations that they’re not prepared to deal with,” O’Hara said.

Their actions reflect on all of law enforcement and threaten to erase hard fought gains to improve police community relations in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.