Jon Hein, chief of patrol at CPD and leader in Midway Blitz response, prepares to exit June 1
CHICAGO - The Chicago Police Department's chief of patrol, effectively the second-in-command of the nation's second-largest police department, will retire June 1, according to a department statement.
Jon Hein has led CPD's patrol division since March 2024. Since the retirement of First Deputy Superintendent Yolanda Talley, he has been the second highest-ranking member of the department under Superintendent Larry Snelling, supervising CPD's response and coming under fire for how police responded to the federal government's sweeping immigration raids.
As chief of patrol, Hein supervises the most visible aspects of the Police Department that define its image in the minds of most Chicagoans, including emergency response, crisis intervention, traffic control, routine patrol and community policing efforts.
Hein's tenure as chief of patrol encompassed the Democratic National Convention in August 2024 and the sweeping federal immigration raids in and around Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz.
CPD brass generally got high marks for their response to the protests that surrounded the 2024 convention, while their response to the federal presence in Chicago has drawn more scrutiny.
Hein himself was a lightning rod for some of that controversy when a message attributed to him broadcast a "no units shall respond" notification following a call from federal agents who were surrounded by an angry crowd in the aftermath of a shooting that left U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez seriously wounded.
The notification went out at 12:28 p.m., almost two hours after the shooting. But it sparked furor across the political spectrum as Chicagoans debated how CPD should interact with federal agents under Illinois law.
The department's response to the chaos that unfolded in Brighton Park that day prompted Snelling to give a full-throated defense of Hein as his right-hand man.
CPD's internal affairs division has since opened an inquiry into how CPD handled the day of the Martinez shooting.
Meanwhile, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has held its own hearings, where many have said - contrary to the wave of right-wing anger about whether police did enough to protect agents - that they felt CPD wasn't doing enough to protect residents from the agents as they roved through the city, getting into car crashes, deploying chemical munitions and arresting people.
Prior to being named chief of patrol, Hein was deputy chief of CPD's central control group, handling public safety for downtown Chicago. He was previously the commander of the Near North (18th) District, covering the Gold Coast, Streeterville and Old Town neighborhoods.
---
(Tribune reporter Sam Charles contributed to this report.)
---
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 7:31 PM.