CINCINNATI — With Teresa Theetge on administrative leave, city officials have named Adam Hennie Cincinnati's interim police chief.
The city announced on Monday that Theetge would be on paid leave "pending an internal investigation into the effectiveness of her leadership." In her place, City Manager Sheryl Long named Assistant Chief Adam Hennie as interim chief.
In a statement Tuesday morning, Mayor Aftab Pureval said he and Long met with Hennie and his assistant chiefs.
"During that meeting, we discussed his planned emphasis on greater use of technology, visibility, and rapid response to critical incidents — on top of spearheading the recommendations from the climate assessment," Pureval said in a statement. "At this moment and moving forward, our focus remains on keeping Cincinnatians safe."
We have spoken to Hennie multiple times in recent history, specifically about youth and downtown violence.
According to the Cincinnati Police Department's website, Hennie led the department's Central Business District unit that patrols and polices downtown Cincinnati, an area that includes Fountain Square, The Banks and the Main Street entertainment area.
That neighborhood in particular has been the focus of much attention, with recent shootings and violence forcing city officials to create and change a safety plan for the area. In fact, it was Hennie who signed a citation charging one 45-year-old man for "recklessly (causing) alarm to another by taunting another, which conduct is likely to provoke a violent response" after a large downtown brawl that grabbed national headlines.
Per his biography with CPD, Hennie has also worked in Districts 1, 2 and 4, and been on several specialized units like Youth Services, Internal investigations and Vice units.
Hennie graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in criminal justice before getting his Master's from the University of Cincinnati. He joined the department in 1999 after serving in the U.S. Navy and was promoted to sergeant in 2005, lieutenant in 2008, captain in 2021 and was promoted to assistant police chief earlier this month.
