As the new police chief, Lovetta Quinn-Henry isn’t just looking at a new year. She’s looking at a new era.  

Many have lauded her landmark appointment as the city’s first female police chief, but Quinn-Henry is steering the conversation away from historic breakthroughs and toward taking the Apopka Police Department (APD) and the community to the next level.  

In a forward-looking sit-down interview with The Apopka Chief, Quinn-Henry outlined her vision for 2026 and beyond to APD from a traditional responsive force to a more proactive agency spurred by data analytics and specialized training.  

“The biggest opportunity for us is to, again, lay our infrastructure so that way our staffing is most appropriate to meet the demands of our community,” she said. “In the next 12 months, we’re having the data-driven analytics that we are more intentional and not responsive, that we’re proactive in our approach when we are dealing with criminal elements.” 

Quinn is a longtime Apopka resident. Having been around the city since 1988 and graduated from Apopka High School, she views her role through the lens of a resident who is familiar with the community and specific needs of various neighborhoods.  

“One of the biggest things that you teach a new officer is learning about the community,” she said, “Not just coming there to a 12-hour shift, but being familiar and learning [about] the people, learning how the processes and the expectations are, so that you can meet the demand.” 

Prior to her tenure as police chief, Quinn-Henry served 25 years with the Orlando Police Department, reaching her highest rank there as deputy police chief.  

As the city of Orlando’s team commander for the critical incident stress management team, she was at the reins during prominent crises such as the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016 and citywide protests.  

Her diverse vocational background includes overseeing operations such as at the Orlando International Airport, serving in uniform patrol and criminal investigations, mentoring youth especially in inspiring pursuit of law enforcement careers, and serving in accreditation and public information. 

Last May she was appointed Apopka deputy police chief under retiring Chief Michael McKinley, who served in the role for a decade, with the expectation that she would be his heir apparent. Quinn-Henry took her oath of office Oct. 30 and started Nov. 1.  

At the change of command ceremony, Quinn-Henry said Apopka has experienced a 26% overall decrease in violent and property crimes compared to 2024, and the city has had no reported homicides in 2025.  

However, “that doesn’t mean we get to relax,” Quinn-Henry said in her interview with the Chief. “That means that we need to stay focused and we need to stay vigilant.” 

Using what Quinn-Henry called more “intentional” policing, APD uses data analytics to help identify what she called ‘hot spots” of monthly violent and property crime activity. Then the APD deploys officers accordingly. 

Responding to emergencies 

As the city continues to grow, Quinn-Henry is taking traffic and response times head-on. She said she doesn’t want to focus so much on the police-to-population ratio as much as on the police having a low emergency response time. The police-to-population ratio is the number of police per 1,000 residents.  

“We’re growing, and the demands will grow with that,” Quinn-Henry said. “We want to make sure that we keep our response times around five minutes from the time it’s dispatched to the time that they’re on scene and speaking to the respondent person.”  

Maintaining the low response time considering the city’s growth is not something she sees as a challenge but rather as an opportunity to expand the department staff to the point where APD will have presence in the north and south sides of the city.  

Quinn-Henry said the department has 147 allocated officer positions with a few vacancies. She said as the city grows, traffic will grow too, impacting response time depending on the time of day, and that not every call requires police to go “with their lights on.”  

“In order to get there expeditiously, we want to make sure that we have our staff placed in the right strategic locations,” she said.  

Organic engagement 

APD has been doing many outreach events, such as the annual Shop With a Cop and Cops and Bobbers. Quinn-Henry is now expanding those community engagement efforts, such as a new program called Random Acts of Kindness in which officers were able to have gift cards and pay bills at local supermarkets.  

In 2026, Quinn-Henry intends to move away from isolated events in specific neighborhoods and toward all-inclusive events such as a redesigned National Night Out hosted by the department. 

“Historically, we’ve just gone into a specific community that invited us in,” she said. “Next year, I’d like to do something that’s all-inclusive, that will allow us to host the event and invite people in. So more to come on that, but I’m looking forward to ways that we can repurpose some of our engagement that we already have.” 

She has begun what she called “organic” outreach, such as visiting senior citizens at city parks and recreation meetings to talk about cyber-safety and fraud. She’s also been highly visible at community events, making appearances at club meetings, the John Land Apopka Community Trust Legacy Gala, and the Apopka Christmas Parade.   

As she looks five years into the future, Quinn-Henry hopes that the public would be reminded how APD has served “with the utmost professionalism” and how the department has “grown and evolved in their careers.”  

“If nothing else, I would hope that they’d say, ‘Under her leadership, she helped build men and women and that they are evolving, and that they are the next evolution of the Apopka Police Department,” she said.