2021 brought us back into the community

While we are still in the midst of a pandemic, 2021 brought with it hope and resolve as a community. The Sandusky Police Department places an emphasis on Community Policing and 2021 allowed us the opportunity to reconnect with the community. The Department currently has two officers assigned as our Community Impact Officers (CIO) — Sergeant Bronson Lillo, who supervises the program, and Officer Ronta Hill-Morton. They both are very passionate about their responsibilities to the department and our community. The CIOs are very active in the community. They also work very closely with our city staff in an ongoing effort to enhance the quality of life in our city. They are the assigned CIOs, but all of our officers place a daily emphasis on community policing. Officers don't just conduct daily patrols of the neighborhoods; they stop and talk to the residents, play games with the children and walk the neighborhoods. Officers conducted thousands of neighborhood, park and business walks this past year. Some highlights of our community policing initiatives in 2021 were: • Officers assisted OHgo, the Sandusky branch of the NAACP, Care and Share, Project Noelle, Serving our Seniors, Ability Works, the Sandusky City Schools and many other organizations throughout the year. • Officers attended several community meetings which allowed us the opportunity to speak directly with residents of the neighborhoods. • We worked with the Parks and Recreation Department to host the annual Touch a Truck event again this year. The attendance was amazing. We also assisted the recreation department with several youth events at our city parks, splash pads and the winter break camp. Officers visited quite a few lemonade stands and playgrounds throughout the summer as well. • Officer Hill-Morton, in conjunction with Sandusky City Schools, organized a very successful youth flag football league. He and several officers and firefighters coached during the four-week program. This very successful program has now expanded to some of our officers coaching biddy wrestling for the Sandusky City Schools. • We were able to join our fellow officers from the Perkins Township Police Department for the return of their Trunk or Treat event. The crowd was so large we ran out of candy. We also participated in Cedar Point's Trick or Treat, and our officers handed out candy in the neighborhoods for the city-wide Trick or Treat on Halloween. • We assisted with a coat, hat, and glove drive, toy drives, and community food drives this winter for those in need. We also partnered with Meijer's again this holiday season for their Shop with a Hero event. All of these were fun times, but the highlight of the year was being invited to Zay's fifth birthday. Several of our officers met Zay at the Touch a Truck event held in August. He was a very well dressed (wearing a police uniform) young man who told us he was going to be a police officer one day. We had a great time talking with him and taking some pictures. Later that month, I received a message asking if we could stop by his birthday party. We did and had a blast. Everyone at the Sandusky Police Department realizes that it is crucial to have the support of our community. We would like to thank all of you for the kind words, cards, snacks, donations, phone calls and friendly waves. The support our community shows our officers is amazing. We look forward to continuing to foster positive relationships with the community through our community policing initiatives in 2022. Jared Oliver Chief of Police, Sandusky Police Department If you want to submit a Local Voices column, please email it to brandonaddeo@tandemnetwork.com. Columns should be 500-750 words and include the writer's headshot, or other photo.