The proposal is to have the sheriff appoint a sergeant to essentially serve at the village’s police chief, according to village council member Joe Curran.
The sergeant would be paid by the village, and this person will carry out a community policing plan coordinate with the Graham school district to increase policing during bus hours. A deputy, also paid by the village, would help the sergeant, and the two would work opposite shifts to cover the village.
The sheriff’s office would use current St. Paris Police cruisers, and the village would pay for maintenance while the sheriff’s office would pay the insurance. This force would work from village buildings on Main Street, “which means the center of town will effectively become a western Champaign County sheriff’s substation,” Curran said.
Curran said that the St. Paris Police force has had 17 resignations since January 2022, which requires the force to have to replace and train about 20% of it every two months, he said.
Higher pay — which would need to be nearly double to be competitive — would not help retain officers, Curran said. He said the problem is St. Paris has no upward mobility.
“Here, you’ll always be a patrol officer,” Curran said. “It’s a seller’s market for cops and we cannot compete.”
Curran said he has heard “that we should be satisfied with our role as a training ground for young officers,” but he doesn’t find that fair to village residents.
“In my view we deserve more experienced, professional officers,” Curran said.
Short staffing in police forces is not a unique problem, with a lot of forces having to rely on overtime to properly cover their communities.
Curran said St. Paris should try out the community policing plan at least for a year or so, and if it doesn’t work out, the village still owns all the equipment.
The village meeting will be held at the Harman Memorial Park building in order to accommodate the large expected turnout, Curran said.
St. Paris has seen some controversy related to its police department recently. Over the summer, Chief Eric Smith was charged with obstructing official business and criminal trespass for openly carrying his firearm and badge at the Champaign County Fair. These charges were dropped last month.
Also recently, the Ohio Supreme Court found that the village violated the Open Meetings Act and state law when it held a closed-door meeting to discuss firing then-Police Chief Erica Barga in 2020. The matter was sent back to the village council.
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