Beyond Her Badge

Meet Melissa Hyatt, the 14th Baltimore County police chief.

- Kaitlyn Pacheco

When Melissa Hyatt stepped up to the podium to address her family, friends, and fellow officers for the first time as the police chief of Baltimore County, she realized that the microphone was set about four inches too high. Wearing her signature spit-shined shoes and tight, low bun, Hyatt tried to pull the microphone down to her 5-foot-2-inch level, but it wouldn’t budge. With the crowd waiting under the warm June sun, Hyatt shrugged, made a “Who cares?” hand gesture, and started her speech anyway.

After all, she had worked too hard for this moment and this position—as not only the county’s new police chief, but its first woman to hold the title—to let anything ruin it. With her badge close to her heart, pinned to her uniform by her father, and more than two decades of local law enforcement service behind her, she finally felt ready to lead the 1,900-person police department. And nothing, not even a stubborn microphone stand, would hold her back from delivering the speech she’d been shaping since she was a young girl.

“Common problem I have,” Hyatt cracked as Major Dennis Delp helped lower the mic. Then, with all eyes on her, she took a deep breath and started again.