By Trevor Jones
The Berkshire Eagle
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Being a police officer can be a harrowing job — dealing with conflicts that deteriorate to the point where your involvement is required, never knowing if you are going into a situation where your life could be in danger or singing in falsetto before a crowd of some of the area s biggest names in your field.
OK, maybe that last one isn’t a scenario most officers will ever face, thankfully, but for Officer Adelheid “Heidi” Teutsch of the Stockbridge Police Department, it’s becoming regular fare.
Teutsch, who has sung in a variety of platforms since she was a child, is often called upon in her capacity as a police officer to perform at ceremonies in the Berkshires and across Western Massachusetts.
“It gives a broader perspective,” said Teutsch, 32, of why she sings at these events. “A sense of the emotional side of police work.”
One of those events took place recently, as Teutsch traveled with Chief Richard Wilcox and her 13-year-old son, Peter, to Springfield, where she sang “God Bless America” as part of a memorial service honoring officers who died in the line of duty.
And as Teutsch finished her a cappella performance on a cold and dreary Wednesday morning, Peter, a seventh-grader at Monument Valley Middle School, smiled at her from the crowd and nodded with adulation.
“I think it’s great,” said Peter, afterward. “I’m very proud of her.”
Many of the officers and dignitaries in attendance approached her at the ceremony’s close to praise her poignant delivery, one passer-by telling her she had “the voice of an angel.”
Teutsch, a Richmond native who’s family bounced around the country when she was a child, began singing at four years old in community plays her mother put on. She later sang in chorus and did vocal solos while attending Pittsfield High School. In recent years, she has even sung at a handful of weddings.
She began her police career a little later, working in West Stockbridge part-time in 2004 before joining the Stockbridge police part-time in 2005. She became a full-time officer in the department three years ago and currently serves as president of the town s police union.
Wednesday’s ceremony took place at Springfield Technical Community College, home of the Western Massachusetts Regional Police Academy and the same campus where she took her first foray into melding her singing and her policing.
In 2007, after someone got word of her vocal chops, Teutsch agreed to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as part of her own graduation ceremony from the academy. And Wilcox has been asking her to take part in important ceremonies ever since.
“I always approach her and say Thank you very much for volunteering, and she says Volunteering for what? " said Wilcox.
But jokes aside, Wilcox said Teutsch’s talent give her the unique opportunity to represent police officers in a different light.
“It’s just another element of community policing,” said Wilcox. “It’s our ability to give back a little to the community, not only in Stockbridge but in Western Massachusetts.”
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