Michael J. Heidingsfield is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission in Memphis, Tennessee. He assumed that post, after a national search, in June of 2000. Prior to his appointment, Chief Heidingsfield served from 1991-1998 as the Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety for the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, the culmination of a 23-year law enforcement career in both Texas and Arizona. Following three years' initial service with the University of Texas System Police from 1975-1978, Chief Heidingsfield served with the Arlington (TX) Police Department from 1978-1991, leaving there as the senior deputy police chief after having been selected through a nationwide recruitment to lead the Scottsdale Police Department. At the time of his retirement from the City of Scottsdale, he was accorded the title of Chief of Police Emeritus.

Immediately prior to his current appointment at the Crime Commission, Chief Heidingsfield served for over two years as the Director and Faculty Chair for Law Enforcement programs at Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, overseeing the creation of a nationwide baccalaureate degree for police practitioners.

Prior to the start of his law enforcement career, Chief Heidingsfield served as an active duty Air Force officer in the Strategic Air Command and remains active as a full colonel in the US Air Force Reserve assigned to Headquarters, United States Air Force at the Pentagon. Chief Heidingsfield was called to active duty in the wake of the attacks of 9/11 and served as a senior team chief in the Air Force Crisis Action Center in the Pentagon.

He received his BS degree in Criminology from Florida State University in 1973 and his MA degree in Liberal Arts (with an emphasis on public policy) from Texas Christian University in 1990. While at Florida State University, Chief Heidingsfield was an Air Force scholarship recipient and a distinguished graduate of the Reserve Officer Training Corps commissioning program. He is a published author, speaker and consultant in the fields of criminal justice, leadership and ethics, and has presented before the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Police Executive Research Forum. Chief Heidingsfield has provided advice and consultation to the Israeli National Police on the issue of violence de-escalation and has served as a trainer for the Ministry of Public Security in Costa Rica. Additionally, he has received three gubernatorial appointments for criminal justice posts in the State of Arizona and is considered an authority in law enforcement accreditation, education for police officers and community-based policing.

Chief Heidingsfield is a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police, generally considered the most advanced police executive training in the country with faculty drawn primarily from the Harvard University Schools of Business and Government. He has been admitted as a doctoral candidate in business administration at Andrew Jackson University in Birmingham, Alabama.

email: mheidingsfield@memphiscrime.org