Sheriff offers presentation on services to Township Trustees

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by Andre Clayton

Reporter

Twinsburg Township -- The county sheriff on March 5 offered Township Trustees a presentation about services offered by his department.

"This is something I try to do annually to contract areas such as the township," said Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander.

Through one of the programs, said Alexander, deputies visit local businesses that they feel may be prone to theft and make recommendations to the owners on how to prevent it. Some recommendations are for businesses to have proper lighting and to remove advertising on the front windows so officers can look inside when driving by in their cruisers, Alexander said.

Residents also can visit the sheriff's office and ask for a "ride along" in a deputy's cruiser, to experience a day in the life of a deputy.

"They can ride up to eight hours, a couple times a month," Alexander said. "We even provide body armor."

According to Alexander, participants get to ride in the front passenger seat of the cruiser and can witness arrests, but precautions are made for their safety.

"We have the participant sign an insurance waiver and if the deputy receives a dangerous call he would have the participant stay in the cruiser," Alexander said.

According to Alexander, his office also offers a juvenile diversion program to non-violent misdemeanor offenders.

The program requires the juvenile to complete hands-on community service activities in place of traditional punishments.

"We take them to grade schools to clean the schools up and also have them clean up debris off the side of the roads," Alexander said.

"We have a 95 percent success rate of kids staying out of trouble," he added.

The sheriff's office offers programs for adults as well.

Alexander said his office is working with a sexual predator watch group made up of grandparents, as well as a senior citizen advisory group.

"They wanted to be more involved with child fingerprinting," Alexander said. "The also have advised me to do more senior citizen protective classes and to do more homechecks."

"Seniors are not afraid to tell me what's going on," Alexander added.

For details on programs offered by the sheriff's office, call 330-643-2181.

E-mail: aclayton@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3172