Sheilah A. Coley

Sheilah A. Coley is the Director of Public Safety in the City of East Orange. One of her notable accomplishments as East Orange Public Safety Director is the implementation of Body Worn Cameras for the East Orange Police Department. With the recent rise in police brutality, the Police Officers of East Orange are now able to defend or be held accountable for their actions via first person video footage. Coley also took part in appointing East Orange’s first female Police Chief, Phyllis Bindi, and East Orange’s youngest Fire Chief, Andre M. Williams.
Early life
Coley graduated from high school in 1980 and then went on to serve in the Air force. After the Airforce, she joined the Newark Police Academy where she became a Police Officer in 1989. She moved up in the ranks fairly quickly, becoming Sergeant in 1996, Lieutenant in 2000, Captain in 2005, and Chief in 2011.
In August 2011, Coley became the first female Chief of Police for the City of Newark. At the time, Newark was facing an upsurge of violent crimes. "We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just need to go back and put the rubber to the ground and do good old-fashioned police work", Coley said."I will be in the community, I will listen to the community and together we will come up with resolutions to move this city forward." With that statement as her guide, she served the City of Newark with great proficiency which eventually led her to becoming the first female Police Director in the City of Newark. Becoming the Director of the City of Newark also meant that Coley would be the first officer to ever hold rank in every position in the Newark Police Department.
She briefly retired from the Newark Police Department in 2014. As a resident of East Orange, she participated in a search to become East Orange’s Public Safety Director. In November 2015, Coley became the East Orange Public Safety Director, where she currently supervises and evaluates three major Departments: Fire Department, Police Department, and Emergency Management.
Amongst her accomplishments, she was also able to obtain her bachelor's degree in May 2015 and her master's degree in 2017.
Training and development
Coley attended the Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (FBI) in Quantico, Virginia, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Police Executive Research Forum in San Francisco, California, the Senior Management Institute for Police at Boston University, A Child Study Program at Yale University, and the POLEX Program at Penn State. She also graduated from Fairleigh Dickenson University with her Bachelors in Criminal Justice and her Master’s in Public Administration.
Accomplishments/ membership
Coley is the first female to hold every rank in the Newark Police Department and also the first female Police Director and Chief of Police in the City of Newark. She was the second Vice President of the Association of Chiefs of Police of Essex County. She was the American Legion Board Judge Advocate and Finance Officer. She was a featured Panelist at an NAACP National Summit and the first and only female president of The Newark New Jersey Bronze Shields. She is a member of The Newark Police Superior Officers Association, The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 12, The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, and The National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.
http://www.eastorange-nj.gov/160/Public-Safety
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