Captain Joe Ramsey Prepares to Lead Harrison Police
In Harrison, Joe Ramsey does not need much of an introduction.
He grew up here, graduated from William Henry Harrison High School and still calls Harrison home. After more than two decades with the Harrison Police Department, he says even a trip to Kroger rarely happens without running into someone he knows. Ramsey is accustomed to hearing his name called across store and parking lots by people he has known for years, and he says he likes that small-town feel.
Now Captain Joe Ramsey is preparing to serve his hometown in a new role. He was recently promoted from lieutenant to captain as he begins a transition period under Police Chief Charles Lindsey. In early 2027, Ramsey will become Harrison’s next chief of police when Chief Lindsey retires.
For Ramsey, the significance is personal.
“Harrison’s my hometown,” he said. “I have a lot of pride in the fact that I work where I grew up.”
A Career Built From the Ground Up
Ramsey began his law enforcement career in 2003 and joined the Harrison Police Department on Jan. 3, 2005.
Since then, he has served as a patrol officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant and now captain. When he becomes chief, Ramsey says he will be the first Harrison police officer to have held every rank in the department.
That experience has shaped the way he thinks about leadership.
Ramsey believes leaders are more effective when they understand the work they are asking others to perform because they have done it themselves.
His leadership experience also reaches well beyond Harrison.
Ramsey joined the Hamilton County Police Association SWAT team in 2006 after Lindsey, who was then the team’s commander, encouraged him as a young patrol officer to consider it. Ramsey went on to serve as a tactical operator, supervisor and assistant commander. He now commands the multi-jurisdictional team, which provides specialized emergency response across 37 Hamilton County communities serving approximately 450,000 residents.
He has completed advanced leadership education through Northwestern University, the University of Louisville’s Southern Police Institute and FBI-LEEDA programs. He is also finishing his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati.
Courage When It Counted
Harrison residents recently saw another side of Ramsey’s service.
On May 26, police and firefighters responded to a fire at the Huntley Ridge Apartments with a resident still trapped inside.
Ramsey and Officer Derek Bischoff initially entered the building but were driven back by heavy smoke. Ramsey then put on a Harrison Fire Department self-contained breathing apparatus and went back inside with Firefighter Will McAlister. The conditions were dangerous, visibility was extremely limited and responders did not know whether the resident might be armed. Ramsey and McAlister continued in. They found the resident and began bringing her out, with Captain Doug Nusekabel joining the rescue. The resident survived.
For his actions, Ramsey received the Harrison Police Department Medal of Valor, the department’s highest recognition for achievement. The Harrison Fire Department also presented him with its non-agency Life-Saving Award, recognizing his willingness to place himself in danger to save another person.
At the City Council meeting where those honors were presented, Mayor Ryan Grubbs also announced Ramsey’s selection as Harrison’s next police chief.
“I couldn’t think of a better candidate,” Grubbs said.
Building Trust Before the Emergency
Ask Ramsey what he wants residents to expect from their Police Department, though, and he does not begin with SWAT operations or awards.
He talks about trust.
He wants officers to be visible and approachable. He wants residents to feel comfortable picking up the phone when something does not seem right. And he especially wants people to stop worrying that calling the Police Department somehow inconveniences its officers.
“I never want them to think that if they’re reaching out to us, it’s a bother because it’s not,” Ramsey said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
That relationship will become increasingly important as Harrison grows.
Ramsey remembers the Harrison of the late 1980s, with far more cornfields and two-lane roads. He has watched new neighborhoods, businesses and development change the community he grew up in. His goal is to make sure the Police Department continues adapting with it without losing the accessibility residents expect from a hometown department.
He is already thinking about more opportunities for residents to interact with officers outside difficult circumstances. One priority is bringing back Shop with a Cop. He also sees potential in the kind of community events he has participated in through SWAT, where residents can see equipment, meet officers and simply talk with the people behind the uniforms.
Ramsey believes those ordinary encounters matter because most people meet a police officer when something has already gone wrong.
He wants Harrison to know its officers before that moment.
Still Joe
Outside work, Ramsey describes himself much more simply.
He spends as much time as possible with family, works out, plays sand volleyball and follows the Ohio State Buckeyes and Cincinnati Bengals. He is usually on the go and makes a deliberate effort to leave police work at work when he can.
And despite the new rank, the advanced training and the chief’s office waiting for him in January, he wants residents to continue seeing the same person they have known for years.
“I’m also Joe Ramsey, the father, the neighbor,” he said.
That may ultimately say more about the transition ahead than any title can.
Ramsey will enter the chief’s office with more than 20 years of Harrison police experience behind him and the perspective of someone who has spent most of his life serving the same community that raised him.
A Hometown’s Appreciation
For more than two decades, Joe Ramsey has given Harrison something that cannot be measured only in years of service or titles earned. He has given this community his courage, his judgment and, again and again, his willingness to show up for people on some of the hardest days of their lives.
His record speaks to valor. The people who know him speak to something equally important: kindness, approachability and a deep sense of responsibility to the place that raised him.
As Harrison prepares to entrust Ramsey with the leadership of its Police Department, there is also an opportunity simply to say thank you. Thank you for the risks taken, the neighbors protected, the younger officers guided and the thousands of ordinary acts of public service that never come with medals or recognition.
And thank you, Joe, for choosing to spend your career here, serving your hometown.
Read the City of Harrison’s original press release naming Joe Ramsey as the City’s next police chief attached here:
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