Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde will transition out of the role of chief after announcing that he is seeking the Republican nomination for Bartholomew Superior Court 2 judge next year.
Rohde, 40, will continue to serve as police chief through the end of this year.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Rohde are working to develop a transition plan to be announced soon, according to an announcement by the police department.
“I’ve been humbled to serve as chief of police for the Columbus Police Department for over five years,” Rohde said in the announcement. “From working closely with Mayor Lienhoop, I can attest that he is a true public servant who cares about the citizens of Columbus as well as the future of our community. I’ve been honored to work alongside Mayor Lienhoop and will do whatever I can to assist in this transition.”
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Rohde, who is also an attorney, announced last week plans to seek the judge seat currently held by Judge Kathleen “Kitty” Tighe Coriden, who is retiring.
Other Republican candidates seeking the nomination include Magistrate Joe Meek, who has served as Superior Court 2 magistrate since 2003, local attorney Dominic Glover and local attorney Scott Andrews.
At age 35 when he became police chief, Rohde was the youngest police chief in the history of the department.
During Rohde’s tenure, the department attained international and state accreditations and re-accreditations, implemented a body-worn camera program and an overdose intervention program and increased transparency by communicating with the public on social media.
His administration completed a Six Sigma project that streamlined the CPD hiring process, planned and executed a multifaceted approach to reverse officer recruitment and retention trends, and created a long-term recruitment plan to increase the diversity on the department. Police-citizen activities increased by expanding the homework with an officer program and the youth academies, as well as developing the department’s Coffee with a Cop program.
Rohde also partnered with other community partners to implement and later expand the department’s school resource officer program, to create the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) and the heroin overdose response initiative, expand the CPD SWAT Team and began conducting multi-jurisdictional training with area law enforcement agencies.
Rohde recently implemented the cutting-edge method of law enforcement known as Intelligence Led Policing (ILP) into the department, leading to a property crime decrease.
While Rohde has been police chief, the department has received several awards, including the Safe City Award, Traffic Safety Award, Safe Wise Safest City, Security Choice Safer City, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Above & Beyond Award, Agency Leadership Award for drug impaired driving enforcement efforts and recognition by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office for the department’s overdose intervention program.
“Jon Rohde is a high-caliber police chief and the city of Columbus has been fortunate to have him serve in that capacity for over five years,” Lienhoop said. “His forward thinking, and desire to improve the force has led to critical improvements in the department. Rohde’s legal background has helped set the tone for making policy changes which have improved how our police force conducts themselves as they do their job and, his commitment to the police workforce led him to push forward, and support the salary compensation study and implementation that was accomplished in 2018.”
Lienhoop, who said he is proud of Rohde’s accomplishments when working for the city, said public safety is the number one commitment a city makes to its citizens and that he has been pleased to work with Rohde for the past three-and-a-half years.
