The Marietta Police Department Is Officially Under New Leadership

MARIETTA, OH — Chief Aaron Nedeff was sworn in as the Chief of the Marietta Police Department Monday night. This was unexpected, Chief Rodney Hupp only retired a couple of weeks ago, and it had been announced that the search to replace him could take months.

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Marietta Safety-Service Director Steve Wetz said he has the utmost confidence in Nedeff’s ability to lead the department. Nedeff has been leading the department for some time. He stepped in as acting chief on April 30. Since then he’s been working two jobs taking on duties as both police chief and captain.

Wetz said that Nedeff’s years of service and leadership abilities made him the standout choice.

However, his appointment was unusual circumstances. Nedeff had been filling in for Hupp because an outside investigator had been brought in to look into claims of a hostile work environment. That investigation took time. Wetz said it was later learned that they had 120-days to administer a type of civil service test. This means they would have had to appoint a different interim chief.

“With that, we took a different route, because we were up against it with the time.”

Under normal circumstances, the test would be posted for 30 days, the applicants would be reviewed, and if qualified they would be allowed 60 days to study for it. That would have pushed the date out to October. Wetz says there is a provision under the Ohio Revised Code that allows them to ask the Civil Service Commission to suspend the usual rules.

“And let us go ahead and make an appointment based on exceptional qualifications based on an emergency type situation.”

Wetz said stability in the department is important right now, and they already have full confidence in Nedeff’s ability. So they made the argument to the Civil Service Commission Monday night. They asked to forego the rules and allow them to fully install Captain Nedeff, as Chief Nedeff.

“They went into executive session, excused us, came back and got us. They decided for this one case only they would suspend the rules and allow us to appoint who we chose.”

So he was sworn in that night. Nedeff said he didn’t want any pomp and circumstance, he just wanted to move ahead with the work they’ve been doing.

“That’s the message I’ve been giving. I’ve been in interim/acting status for the last three months. It’s business as usual. The mission stays the same, just the leader has changed.”

Mayor Josh Schlicher said he's very pleased with his leadership.

"He's really hit the ground running."

Wetz said Nedeff is going to continue handling captain duties until they name his replacement. The city is planning on hiring from within. They are also looking at adding a new position, lieutenant. Wetz said it would be good to have a middle-management type cop in the department. Someone who works boots on the ground, but also administration and can relay things back and forth.

Nedeff apparently wants to equip the department with body cameras for a number of reasons. This being the case, someone will need to be hired to help deal with all that entails. So the Marietta Police Department will be promoting a couple more officers in the not-so-distant future. Wetz said this was something they had been looking to do, and now is the right time to start implementing it.

Nedeff says there will be changes coming, but reminded folks that change is both normal and necessary.

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