City leaders have selected an outside law firm to investigate CPD Chief Teresa Theetge’s “effectiveness of leadership” after she was placed on administrative leave last week.
City Manager Sheryl Long announced in a Monday press email that law firm Frost Brown Todd has been hired as independent counsel to conduct the review. The city said the investigation “will take the amount of time necessary to ensure it is managed with integrity, accuracy and thoroughness.”
The city will not comment further on the investigation, saying it’s a “personnel matter.” Interim CPD Chief Adam Hennie was praised by the city in the press release for having “deep operational experience.”
“He has already demonstrated this by implementing initiatives to strengthen our public safety strategies by expanding the bike patrol unit, establishing a full-time SWAT team, and integrating key technology systems under one unit,” the release reads.
The decision to sideline Theetge came after public scrutiny over crime began intensifying this summer. Several highly publicized murders and other violent crimes put pressure on leaders to act decisively on crime, even though the data shows a mixed bag of increases and decreases in various types of crime throughout the city’s core.
Ken Kober, president of Cincinnati’s Fraternal Order of Police, described the internal investigation as a “sham probe” meant to deflect blame for the “violent crime wave,” which he places on Mayor Aftab Pureval.
“Placing Chief Theetge on leave doesn’t solve a damn thing,” Kober said last week. “It just spotlights Pureval’s inability to lead and his habit of hiding behind others when the heat turns up.”
Theetge, who is the first woman to hold the position of chief in CPD’s history, made it clear last week that she has no intention of leaving. She hired employment attorney Stephen Imm, who told reporters the city has no grounds for the decision.
“They’re looking for a scalp. They’re looking for a scapegoat,” Imm said. “Terri Theetge deserves better than that. Cincinnati deserves better than that.”