Chapel Hill’s police chief is Celisa Lehew, who was sworn in on January 1, 2023, as the ninth chief of the Chapel Hill Police Department and the first woman to hold the job. She was appointed by the Town Manager after a nationwide search and had spent her entire 18-year law enforcement career inside the department she now leads.
Celisa Lehew’s Background
Lehew joined Chapel Hill PD as a patrol officer in 2004. She worked criminal investigations and community patrol, then moved up through investigator, sergeant, and captain before being promoted to Assistant Chief, where she ran administrative operations and department logistics. When Chief Chris Blue retired at the end of 2022 after 12 years at the top, she was selected from a national applicant pool to succeed him.
Her academic credentials match the operational résumé. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Lake Superior State University and a master’s in justice administration from Methodist University.
How the Chief Is Chosen
The chief is not elected. Under North Carolina law, the Town Manager has the authority to appoint, suspend, and remove city officers and to direct all departments.1North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 160A-148 The municipality’s power to maintain a police force and name a chief in the first place comes from N.C. General Statute 160A-281.2North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 160A-281 – Policemen Appointed
In practice, when the job opens the Town Manager runs a nationwide recruitment that includes public input sessions on local policing priorities. The 2022 search drew applications from across the country before Lehew was selected from within. Serious candidates typically hold at least a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or public administration, usually a master’s, and extensive command experience; Lehew met all of those benchmarks.
Before taking office, every appointed city official in North Carolina must swear a formal oath to support the U.S. Constitution and bear true allegiance to the state and its constitutional government.3North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes – Chapter 11 – Oaths That step is what formally authorizes the chief to exercise police powers.
Who the Chief Answers To
Chapel Hill runs on a council-manager system, and the chief reports to the Town Manager, not to the Mayor or Town Council.4Town of Chapel Hill. Town Manager The current Town Manager, Ted Voorhees, was appointed by the Council effective August 11, 2025. He conducts the chief’s performance evaluations and has the authority to take personnel action based on them.
The Mayor and Council set broad policy direction and approve the budget, but they do not direct day-to-day law enforcement decisions. That separation is intentional. It keeps individual policing calls out of elected officials’ hands while leaving funding and strategy with them.
What Chief Lehew Is Focused On
Lehew has put deflection and diversion at the center of her approach, steering people toward mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling, or education rather than into the criminal justice system when that path fits better. The most visible piece of that philosophy is the department’s Crisis Unit, founded in the early 1970s and expanded under her leadership to include peer-support staff with personal experience in substance abuse and homelessness. The unit handles domestic violence, sexual assault, and mental health calls where a standard police response may not be the right tool.
The department has also joined the national 30×30 Initiative, a commitment to raise women’s share of sworn officers to 30 percent by 2030. Chapel Hill signed on while Lehew was still assistant chief, and reported a 3 percent increase in female officers during 2023. A related recruitment pipeline, the GEMS program (Girls. Empowered. Motivated. Spectacular), introduces young women aged 14 to 19 to law enforcement careers over six weeks.
Managing the town’s relationship with the University of North Carolina is a permanent fixture of the job. The department partners with UNC on the Good Neighbor Initiative, sending volunteers door-to-door in mixed student and long-term resident neighborhoods to cover local ordinances and encourage cooperation. The program reaches more than a thousand homes a year, and the broader town-gown dynamic shapes staffing on football Saturdays and the department’s approach to campus protests.
How to Reach the Department
Residents who want to file a complaint or commendation about an officer can do so through the Office of Professional Standards. The town provides a submission form on its website, and the office can be reached at 919-968-2760.5Town of Chapel Hill. Police Compliments and Complaints The Community Policing Advisory Committee that previously reviewed department policies and reported to the Council was disbanded in November 2024, when the Council decided to replace standing advisory boards with staff-led engagement and time-limited working groups.