Beyond the Badge – Detective Cheri Ells

This week, we’re proud to salute Detective Cheri Ells of the Wheat Ridge Police Department.

You can take the girl out of the small town but you can’t take the small town out of the girl, which may be why Detective Cheri Ells chose to work for the Wheat Ridge Police Department. Growing up northeast of Brighton, Ells’ family ran a dairy farm with 300 head of cattle. She and her brothers still help dad, although Ells Dairy is much smaller today, and her brothers have taken over its day-to-day operation. Ells was encouraged by her mom to leave the farm and pursue a different career.

A favorite uncle in Iowa had spent his life on the police force there, and Ells credits him with her decision to focus on pursuing her Criminal Justice degree, graduating from Metropolitan State University of Denver. While taking a physical agility test, a comment was made about her strength on the trigger. “What did you do milk cows for a living?” Actually yes she did!

She has served the Wheat Ridge community as a police officer for the past 25 years. Ells was on patrol for seven years before breaking through a now outdated barrier for women to become a motorcycle officer. Riding is still a personal interest but nearly 12 years ago Ells secured a position as a Detective with a focus on crimes against persons. Her passion is investigating crimes against children and those have been some of her most difficult cases. “Children can’t speak for themselves so I speak for them.”

“Wheat Ridge has a small town feel which is a good fit for me. The officers and detectives get to know each other and we are a close knit group. In larger agencies you never get to meet everyone but at Wheat Ridge we know each other so well we can anticipate how our fellow officers will react in a given situation, and that helps in our police work.” Ells is a driving and simulator instructor for the Wheat Ridge PD’s Citizens Police Academy and the Volunteer Academy as well as a firearms and driving instructor for the department.

Thank you, Detective Ells – for going Beyond the Badge.

Detective Ells is pictured above holding pinwheels as part of a fundraiser she led for WRPD to benefit the Ralston House which provides services to abused children.