A reader tipped me off that Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Metro Transit’s former Police Chief Ernest Morales have wikipedia pages created by the same editor. Both pages were created in early 2023 and read like promotional material. Wikipedia does allow for paid editing but “does not allow promotion, advertising, marketing or public relations.”
The editor uses his real name, Marcus Allen Sr, and discloses that his work on wikipedia is paid for by his company MN Tech LLC. Allen’s bio on the MN Tech website advertises his experience working with law enforcement agencies. The O’Hara and Morales pages are Allen’s only contributions to wikipedia aside from one small edit to the page of Inez Garcia.
As he was beginning work on the O’Hara page in February 2023, Allen disclosed his client as Brian O’Hara, but quickly deleted it. The source of a photo Allen uploaded showing Morales in his Navy uniform is listed as “direct email from Ernest Morales III.”
Allen’s editing work on behalf of O’Hara spanned from February to November 2023. His work on Morales’s page went from April to September 2023. Morales’s page hasn’t yet been updated to reflect that he resigned from Metro Transit in the middle of an internal investigation about his workplace behavior.
