Steven Michael Dettelbach (born November 29, 1965) is an American lawyer who served as the eighth director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from 2022 to 2025.

He was the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio for over six years during the presidency of Barack Obama, resigning in 2016.

From 2016 to 2022, he was a partner at BakerHostetler, serving as co-leader of the firm's national White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations team.

[7] Dettelbach joined the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Criminal section in 1992 as a trial lawyer and also served as the acting deputy chief there under Richard W. Roberts (who was later appointed a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by President Bill Clinton).

[8][9][10] He became an assistant United States attorney in Maryland from 1997 to 2001 and was named deputy chief of the Southern Division of that office, which covers the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

[11] He also prosecuted US v. Budd, a case involving a series of beatings by guards and senior managers at a jail in Youngstown, Ohio, resulting in eight convictions on civil rights and obstruction of justice charges.

[4][6] Dettelbach was a volunteer on U.S. Representative Ted Strickland's 2006 campaign for Ohio governor, offering policy advice, and participating in fundraising and grassroots activities.

His office prosecuted the largest case, in terms of the number of defendants, under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

[19] His office also secured a guilty plea to hate-crimes charges from an Indiana man who drove to northwest Ohio and set fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

[20] That came more than a year after a white supremacist was sentenced to prison for setting fire to the only predominantly African American church in Conneaut, Ohio, an event Dettelbach used as the basis for the formation of United Against Hate, an interfaith group committed to religious tolerance.

[26] According to NPR, "The ATF, which plays a key role in gun regulations, hasn't had a permanent director since 2015, and there has been only one since the agency became a Senate-confirmed position in 2006.

The hearing's Republican members questioned him about his position on assault weapons, while Dettelbach promised that he would "never let politics in any way influence my action as ATF director.