By Rory McNelley, Staff Writer
Chief Teresa Theetge is the current, proud Chief of Police for the city of Cincinnati. She’s a grandmother, but she also calls the more than 1,100 Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) officers her family. As a graduate of Xavier University, she is an unabashed Musketeers fan.

While working for the CPD, Chief Theetge started attending Xavier University in 2008 to complete her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Organizational Leadership and her Master’s degree in Human Resource Development.   

“What my bachelor’s degree taught me was discipline,” Theetge said.  “You have to be organized and ready for anything. The course content is helpful for me as I navigate through things here on a daily basis.”

Theetge pursued her degrees through the federal employee tuition reimbursement program. She took classes at night and on weekends.

 “What college taught me the most is really to think outside the box–like way outside the box. You have to show your skillset and show your talent, and the best way to really shine is to think outside the box from what somebody else is doing,” she said.  

She urges Xavier students not to be afraid to take risks. 

“You might fail once in a while and that is ok,” Theetge said.

“I focus on taking care of others and treating people the way you want to be treated,” she said about how her Jesuit education affects how she approaches her work. “What I can do for someone else is my approach to things.”

After serving as interim police chief, Theetge was sworn in on Jan.9, 2023. This position is not her first time in leadership though. She has led departments of the force including District One Patrol, Central Vice Control, and Internal Investigations as night chief.

As the first female Chief of Police for CPD, Theetge is making history.

“It is something I had my sights on from the time I started the police academy in 1990. I always wanted to be chief, but I thought some woman before me would do it first,” Theetge said. “Here we are 34 years later and nobody before me has done it.” 

“For me it wasn’t a big deal. It was just a goal and I went out to attain that goal,” she added. 

Theetge said she has a strong bond with her officers and considers them like family.  “I bring a little bit of a maternal instinct to it. I care about the officers extremely deeply and I am not afraid to express that to them,” she said. “Every once in a while, I will have to remind them to not confuse my kindness with weakness.”

Theetge does not worry about how officers view her in her position. “We can do exactly what the men can do,” she stated. 

Theetge has spent her entire career in law enforcement working with the CPD as a patrol officer, working on investigative assignments as well as inspections audits and internal investigations. 

“Things are changing every day in law enforcement across this country–technology is changing legislation is changing. My job is to stay ahead of it all,” Theetge said.