Police Chief Stephanie Foley was in Quantico, Va., in May attending a 10-week FBI national academy for advanced communications and leadership training, she received a phone call from her boss, Sedona Police Chief Charles Husted, informing her of his retirement towards the end of August 2022.

Foley said that it happened as she was reflecting on her career as a police officer. She said she asked herself: “Why did I start this job, and does it still ring true? Have I hardened with everything I see and do?”

“That’s why it was so serendipitous that he would tell me he’s retiring while I’m there [at Quantico], really focusing again on the right reasons to be in this career, learning lessons, working on mental health and [physical training]. And then it came up,” Foley said.

Foley said she considered applying for police chief and wondered if she should.

“I graduated on June 9 and the job was already posted. It closed on Monday just before I returned,” she said.

Foley said that she wanted to make sure that she was applying for the job for the right reasons, not for ego, status or title.

“Charles wasn’t like that, either,” Foley elaborated. “And that’s what this place [Sedona] deserves. I just had to ask, was I in a good place for myself? Could I be here for everyone else? And then, ultimately, I thought it was time.

“I wanted to ensure the department had somebody that would give longevity. If we have turnover, then it’s hard to have stability because you never know what the next person might want. So, I wanted to make sure that I was in a good place to do what the department really needed. I just didn’t think it was going to happen this quick.”

As Foley was trying to make the right decision, her wife, Jet, made the decision before she did.

“I think she was ready [for me to apply for the position]. But she’s such a support system for me. And it’s amazing that she’s always in my corner,” Foley said. “I think she knew before I did — just because I really wanted it to be right.”

Groomed for Success

Husted’s goal was to groom his team for success. After years of moving up through the ranks, beginning as a dispatcher in 2005 and then as a K-9 officer with her partner, Dalan, Foley was promoted to sergeant in 2015 and lieutenant in 2018.

In 2021, she was chosen unanimously by a trio of professional, community and city panels to become SPD’s first deputy police chief. She was promoted June 21, 2021.

“I can see her dedication and commitment to our organization and her dedication to growing herself as a leader,” Husted noted at that time. “This level of achievement that she’s accomplished does not come easily. It requires devotion, plenty of hard work, continual learning, incredible resilience and a focus on constant improvement.”

Husted felt that the deputy chief position created a pipeline from an entry-level position to the chief of police.

“A lot of small agencies are often hiring from the outside,” Husted observed. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it keeps changing the consistency and direction of the organization.”

Foley said that when she began her career, there were many candidates available.

“Nowadays, you get way less in your recruitment pool, where all the different departments are struggling to find applicants that can either pass backgrounds, meet the qualifications or even want to join this career,” she noted.

In the Beginning

Foley grew up in Connecticut until age 10. Her family moved to Mesa, Arizona, where she lived until college.

She described them as “the cubicle office people, those who are in the semiconductor industry — much different from what I like to do.”

After high school, Foley attended Northern Arizona University and studied psychology, planning to become a family counselor.

“When I initially get into something, I just want to see it,” Foley explained. “I think that’s the psychology side of me. I love to people watch. I like to feel it out. I like to read and do and then I start doing after I get a good sense of it. In college, I was in a sorority, which most people find funny.”

Foley joined Pi Beta Phi, a sorority whose mission is promoting friendship, cultivating leadership potential and enriching lives through community service. She says that she was pushed into the role of president by her friends.

After four and a half years of college, she took a break. She wasn’t ready to get her master’s degree and began having second thoughts. On a whim, she went on a ride-along with Sedona police Sgt. Michael Dominguez, and from that moment on, she was hooked.

“I didn’t want to be in an office, which is weird that I find myself now using my administrative skills,” Foley reflected. “I wanted more of what law enforcement offered, being in the field, not knowing what to plan for next, because you’re at the whim of the next speeder, the next call.”

Throughout her life, Foley has participated in sports, playing volleyball, basketball and softball. There was a time she even tried shot put and discus. But nothing seems to compare to her latest endeavor — pickleball.

“I love pickleball,” Foley admitted. “I do tournaments, but I haven’t done them in a long time since getting in this position and trying to rebalance everything again.”

Foley is so addicted to the sport that she is constantly being reminded by her wife to limit her playing time, especially when they are on vacation. Brushing that aside, she reiterates that she is a fierce competitor on the court.

Hail to the Chief

On Sept. 1, 2022, Sedona City Manager, Karen Osburn appointed Foley to take over the chief position.

Osburn stated on Aug. 26, “Deputy Chief Foley has more than proven her commitment to the organization and the community with 17 years of exemplary public service …. I am excited to have the opportunity to make the first internal promotion to the police chief position and to appoint our first female chief of police.”

“I never did things to be the first, you know,” Foley said. “First woman or the first gay woman, or first internal [promotion]. I was careful not to say that I was the first woman because I didn’t want that to be what people first saw of me. I think, at times, I’ve tried to overdo things so I could be seen as an equal. Because you just don’t want that to be the narrative behind your selection or the reason you’re somewhere.”

Foley noted that at the beginning of her career, she hid that she was gay, thinking that she wouldn’t be accepted.

“Part of what I had to learn through my journey was that I was allowing people to potentially hurt me because of something I was hiding — because I didn’t think it could be accepted. But I accepted it. So, I no longer do that,” she said.

Foley and her wife, Jet, just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary.

Foley didn’t expect that climbing the internal ladder would have its issues.

“People know me, good, bad, and indifferent,” she reflected. “They know the mistakes I made early on. You don’t have a clean slate. People know me; they know me well. They know some of those silly things I did in my earlier years, learning to navigate things in general. Also not taking for granted the relationships you already have. I still need to get out and go walk around and see people, not just dive fully into the work, and still go back out and not forget where I came from.”

Foley has a community following that was evident during her swearing in. Many attendees, including former Police Chief Husted, mentioned that it was the largest crowd they ever saw attend. Foley was surrounded by friends, family and members of the community and former chiefs David McGill, Ron Wheeler, Ray Cota and Bob Irish, Sedona’s first chief.

Mentorship

Foley also spoke about her mother, who was her biggest supporter throughout her entire life. “She was a very hardworking woman. And if she wanted something, she would work very hard for it. She was super intelligent. She gave me that. There’s nothing I couldn’t do if I wanted to, and that if I kept trying, I could get there,” Foley said.

In April 2021, Foley’s mother died of breast cancer.

“When people ask who my mentor is, it’s my mom,” Foley said. “She was always right there with me. Sometimes you just don’t see what’s right in front of you until later. And those were my biggest lessons. That was my person. She helped me be the woman I am. I wish she was here. And in some ways, I know she is with me.”

Foley says that throughout her life, she would describe herself as a “middle-of-the-road person.”

She added that she always tried to stay under the radar. Yet she said she has high expectations for herself and is her own biggest critic.

“I think that is a challenge to be somebody that has high expectations,” Foley said. “It’s hard, because then I have that [expectation] for other people too. So, I constantly need to keep myself in check. Just because that’s my own doesn’t mean that has to be theirs. But I also think it’s fair to always look to raise the bar, maybe it’s never at the same high-level expectation I have for myself, but I don’t want to live in a status quo. I want to be challenged, and I want others to be challenged. And I want them to challenge me as well.”