Michelene Alexa, Commander
Chicago Police Department (Retired)
 
Career Highlights
  • Retired Chicago Police Commander after 31.5 years of honorable service
  • Attended Senior Management Institute for Police in Boston
  • Master of Jurisprudence from DePaul University College of Law
  • District Training Lieutenant
  • Recipient of the Chicago Police Award of Valor
  • 4 Life Saving Awards and Over 100 other awards including over 75 Honorable Mentions
  • Only CPD female tactical Lieutenant in Chicago during 2020 civil unrest
  • Commander of a District providing leadership and direction to 170 officers and support staff that comprised over 10 square miles of Chicago serving approximately 150,000 very diverse residents 

Michelene Alexa spent almost 32 years with the Chicago Police Department before retiring as a Commander in the Patrol Division. 

Starting as a patrol officer in 1991, she was quickly recognized for her hard work and dedication. As a young patrol officer in 1993, Michelene was asked to join the Gang Team and spent several years doing gun, gang, and narcotic investigations in the infamous Chicago housing project, Cabrini Green. After her stint as a Gang Team Officer, she went to the Narcotics Division where she acted as an undercover buy officer, working in some of the most gang, drug, and violence plagued areas of Chicago. Michelene has made countless street level undercover narcotics buys and has also served as a surveillance officer, where she provided security for fellow narcotics unit buy officers, and gathered invaluable information on street narcotic and gang operations. She was certified as an Electronic Criminal Surveillance Officer in Illinois and acted as wire room supervisor during a large Title III investigation.

Michelene served as a Tactical Sergeant and Tactical Lieutenant where her teams and unit focused on gang, drug, and narcotic investigations. She has participated in the writing, approval, planning, and execution of countless search warrants during her roles as an Officer, Sergeant, and Lieutenant. She was asked to be on the working group that rewrote the current CPD search warrant policy and procedure.

In 2017, Michelene was a new lieutenant working in one of the most violent communities of Chicago in she was chosen to supervise one of the first three (3) Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSC) in Chicago. It was one of the three pilot districts that would use data driven, predictive policing, along with surveillance systems to help combat violent crime. Michelene was able to put the best people in place to use the platforms together to garner the best results. The platforms combined with the surveillance systems helped plan safer and smarter responses to scenes. Officers arrived at incidents faster and more informed. This is Michelene’s #1 goal: to keep both officers and the community safer. Initially there were no SOP or directives for the SDSC rooms and Michelene helped put together the best practices and procedures that are currently listed in SDSC Room Directives.

Michelene looks forward teaching with PLET to using her extensive training and experience to help law enforcement officers around the country do their job safer and more efficiently!