The same day a former Minneapolis Police Department officer was sentenced in the death of George Floyd, Chief Brian O’Hara announced a new structure for the department intended to improve efforts to rebuild community trust.

Starting Monday, the department was split into two division halves: one for operations and another for community trust.

Those divisions are led by two newly created assistant chief positions. Both were appointed from within the department: Christopher Gaiters, the new assistant chief of community trust, and Katie Blackwell, assistant chief of operations.

O’Hara said since taking over as chief in November he realized “significant organizational structure changes were needed.” He said the restructuring enables the department to have “greater accountability” over efforts to reduce crime and restore trust.

One observation, O’Hara said, was having too many supervisors on the lower rungs of the department and more staff were needed in executive positions to resemble more of a “logical staircase.”

“This increases the amount of people available on the executive level to provide accountability, and that’s absolutely necessary,” O’Hara said at the Monday news conference.

As assistant chief of community trust, Gaiters will also oversee two new bureaus announced last week: the Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Bureau of Constitutional Policing.

The news came the same day that former officer Tou Thao was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for aiding in George Floyd’s killing in 2020.