In Honor of International Women’s Day, we are recognizing Acting Deputy Chief of Administrative Operations, Deirdre Jones.
Deirdre Jones was appointed to the rank of Commander of the Bureau of Support Services in 2016 and is a 32-year veteran with the Cleveland Division of Police. In that role, she oversaw the Training, Personnel, and Records Sections, amongst other duties. Commander Jones worked tirelessly with her team to streamline the hiring process by implementing online entrance testing. Commander Jones sits on a committee that will oversee the process of selecting new protocols for improved psychological testing of candidates. She has acted as a nationwide Assessor for promotional exercises for outside law enforcement agencies since 2016 and shares other agency best practices with the goal of refining the Division’s promotion process.
In 2018, Commander Jones was appointed as the Department of Public Safety’s first-ever LGBTQ Liaison for police, fire, and EMS. As the Liaison, her responsibilities include promoting equity and inclusion in all divisions of public safety, increasing the City’s ability to attract and retain the best talent, building and maintaining a trust relationship between the LGBTQ community and public safety forces by attending events in the community, assisting LGBTQ-identified members of public safety forces while maintaining their confidentiality, and providing LGBTQ-specific training to members of the Department of Public Safety.
In 2014, Commander Jones was the first female to ever supervise the Division’s Homicide Unit where she served until her appointment to Commander. As a former detective and Sergeant in charge of the Domestic Violence Unit, she investigated thousands of domestic violence complaints, contributed to the unit’s Operations Manual and advocated for the unit to be the primary investigator of LGBTQ-related relationship violence. She is a state-certified Cultural Diversity/Procedural Justice and domestic violence (DV) instructor, a federally-certified DV instructor-trainer through the Department of Homeland Security, and has taught locally and nationally on domestic violence related topics, sexual assault/sexual harassment, and social responsibility-related topics for churches, schools, government agencies, civic organizations and professional organizations including the Cleveland Browns.
Commander Jones is an adjunct professor at Notre Dame College and holds a Master of Public Administration from Villanova University. She is a graduate of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Leadership College, and has completed the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Federal Law Enforcement Training Center leadership programs. Formerly a member of the Cleveland Community Police Commission, Commander Jones is a member of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the International Association of Women Police, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Commander Jones contributed to the Ohio Chiefs of Police magazine, and has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including Ohio Attorney General’s Mark Losey Service Award, the LGBT Heritage Award for public service, the Chief’s Commendation for Outstanding Investigative Unit, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Medal of Heroism, the Division’s second-highest honor.
Please join us in thanking her for her service to our community.
Cleveland Division of Police 
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