Chief Herold served as the District 4 Operations Commander, which serves ten diverse neighborhoods within the City of Cincinnati. During her tenure with the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD), she successfully dismantled several violent offender networks using an evidence-based focused deterrence strategy. Her collaboration with public and private entities led to neighborhood stabilization and affordable housing opportunities in underserved communities. Before retiring from CPD, she served in numerous leadership positions, including assignments within the agency’s Professional Standards Section, Training Section, Community Relations Section, and Crime Analysis and Problem Solving Unit. Her notable projects include the development of mental health response teams (i.e., crisis intervention teams) and ethical and constitutional responses to address community needs associated with homelessness and substance abuse issues.
Chief Herold holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before joining the CPD, she began her career in social work, serving as a sexual assault investigator and as a psychiatric intake worker in a juvenile mental health facility. She is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police in Boston, and Cincinnati’s Regional Chamber of Commerce Executive Leadership Course. She has received numerous awards for her community collaboration, police reform, and large-scale problem-solving projects to reduce crime and improve services for at-risk populations. Most recently, her Cincinnati crime reduction initiative was awarded the international 2017 Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem Oriented Policing. She received the Ohio’s 2019 Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) award recognizing her successful police reform efforts, including diversity-focused recruiting initiatives and innovative technologies to improve police decision-making. She has also received several community awards, including the 2016 Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement Award and Problem-Solving Award, sponsored by numerous community organizations, including the Black United Front, ACLU, and FOP.