Brisset
By Sheryl Roadcap
PIQUA — The city of Piqua’s Police Department now has its first female detective on its force.
Kiersten Brisset, of Piqua, was recently named as Piqua Police Department’s first female detective after a lateral transfer occurred within the department. She officially took on the role of detective on July 31.
“I think it’s great. I think it’s an honor to be the first female detective here at Piqua,” Brisset said. “I’ve been interested in (becoming a detective), I would say within my first year of working here. Investigations is something that I have always been extremely interested in. I think they are a lot of fun to work on, a lot of different angles to them.”
Brisset, who is a native of Trenton, began her career with the city of Piqua Police Department a little over six years ago in 2016. She graduated from Edgewood High School in Trenton and from the Sinclair Community College Police Academy, as well as attended Miami University in Oxford. She also has a certification in forensic interviewing. Prior to her appointment to the position of detective, Brisset worked as patrol officer and a field training officer as an officer in charge, or OIC. She also is part of the Tactical Response Team for negotiation and conducts forensic interviews.
The lateral assignment change, as Piqua Police Chief Rick Byron explained, is the result of a process that includes a review of potential candidates for the position. Candidates are eligible after about six years working for the department to move into the position of detective. Typically, every five to six years, members’ roles within the police department rotate to become familiar with other positions. Byron said Piqua Police officers do the job from the beginning by responding to a call to the end following it through to prosecution, whether it is a misdemeanor or a felony. Brisset’s hands-on experience as an officer has well prepared for the new position.
“Typically we’ll put out for interested officers for the position and do a panel interview with two or three people. We already know their their work performance, obviously because of reviews, but in this particular case we bypassed that completely because of the people interested, she was obviously the most qualified. So, there was no point going through the process,” Byron said.
“In Kiersten’s case, here is a patrol officer working patrol that’s also a been a field training officer, has been an officer in charge. She has also, in her hostage negotiation team with the tactical response team, and then (during her time) over six years here, the training requests that she has put in helped set her up for that position as well — which one of them is forensic interviewing. Interviewing is a big part of being a detective. Here she is doing forensic interviews, that not everybody can do. And she did all of that when she was an officer. So, she has proven that she is competent, she’s proven that she can work independently, and she has the training experience to hit the ground running.
During her time as Piqua Police officer, she received several nods of achievement for her good work, including a letter of accommodation for her lifesaving efforts to help a four-month-old child in 2019. The young child did not survive but Brisset was recognized by the department for her “attempts to give the child its best chance for survival.” In 2019, she was named Officer of the Year, and in 2021 received the city’s Life Saving Award and Jan Molder Award for helping to save the life of a female who drove her vehicle into the river.
When asked about her ambitions, Brisset said she knew since a little kid that she always wanted to be a police officer.
“My grandpa was a cop in Middletown. But I‘ve grown up, since I was little — like my kindergarten books say this is what I always wanted to do,” she said with a big smile.
Catherine Bogan, city of Piqua human resources director, said there has been no discursiveness about Brisset’s move to detective from colleges within the police department, which sometimes happens in the workplace. It was a “well deserved” move, agreed both Bogan and Byron.
“It speaks volumes to her professionalism; she has the respect of her peers,” Borgan said.
She also noted Brisset could vie for a promotion of the position of lieutenant, which could also make her the department’s first female lieutenant as soon as next year.
“I’d love to see Kiersten compete as the first female lieutenant,” Borgan said. “It could happen as early as next year, based upon retirements.”
”It’s very exciting. I have a lot of career oriented goals here at Piqua, and this (becoming a detective) was one of the main ones. Hopefully in the future I can continue to maintain those goals. I am excited for that future, especially being such a young officer and having such a long career ahead of me. These are great opportunities at such and early stage,” Brisset said of the possibility of making lieutenant.
Brisset resides in Piqua with her husband and their young son.
