We’ve all seen the videos and heard the stories. Often the news is exaggerated to make better headlines. But when repeated again and again through a news cycle, it does more damage than can be imagined.
When George Floyd’s life was snuffed out by Derek Chauvin and other members of the Minneapolis Police Department over a counterfeit $20 bill, it set in motion justifiable protests and, in some cases, unjustified violent riots. Locally, it brought back memories of the tragedy of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. It also set back the efforts of the Cleveland Police Foundation, Police Athletic League (PAL) and other local police departments working hard to establish good community relations, often wiping out decades of progress in the process.
Now, it’s time to rebuild — to reestablish trust among law enforcement and the local neighborhoods and communities it serves. It will not be an easy task. But in Northeast Ohio, the process is ongoing.
“When I saw everything that happened two years ago, I just cringed,” says retired Cleveland Division of Police Sgt. Robert “Bob” Kumazec, executive director of the Cleveland PAL. “It’s everything we stand against, and it really hurt me on a personal level.
“But it’s also the reason police departments in other cities need organizations like the Cleveland PAL,” he adds.
Ask any prominent law enforcement officer, and they will invariably answer the same way. Good community relations are at the heart of creating any safe environment. Reaching out to younger citizens, even those ages 6, 7 or 8, is always the best way to start.
“Building those relationships when kids are really young is especially important,” says Dornat “Wayne” Drummond, chief of the Cleveland Division of Police, who assumed the permanent title of chief from his previous interim status over the summer. “They need to know that we are their friends — that we are here to help. A lot of it starts with getting our officers out of their law enforcement role so younger generations can see our officers in a different light.”
“It is absolutely critical,” adds Capt. Mitch Houser, who serves with the community services division of the Euclid Police Department. “Without the general support of the public, no police department could ever hope to effectively address problems with crime and public disorder.
“The Euclid Police Department deeply values our relationship with the public and works to maintain and enhance it as often as possible,” Houser adds.
“Community involvement is the first step in fighting crime,” says Lt. Dan Ciryak, public information officer for the Parma Police Department. “Our officers obviously cannot be all over the city and witness crimes firsthand, and that’s where the public comes in.
“The members of our community typically report the crimes first, and our officers are quick to respond to these calls for service. We rely on the public to report these crimes, as well as follow up with tips, which help us solve crimes in our city.”
Dick Clough, board chair and president of the Cleveland Police Foundation, has been at the forefront of helping build the ties between Cleveland neighborhoods and law enforcement for years.
“We are involved with a lot of different programs,” says Clough. “We have a program that encourages conversations between our younger residents and police officers. We have another called Cookin’ with Cops. It’s very important that we create an atmosphere where our youth and younger residents are not afraid of the police.”
To that end, the Cleveland Police Foundation supports a program that promotes fishing with cops, a favorite of Drummond’s.
“They go out on a charter boat, fish all day and have lunch,” he says. “Most importantly, they talk, and not about police things. They engage, and the young people see officers in a more humanistic light, which is very important.”
“Next year, we are also starting a mural program called Messages with Hope, where kids and cops will work together to create neighborhood art,” adds Clough.
In fact, the Cleveland PAL’s community involvement is almost legendary. It started back in 1938, when the Cleveland PAL was founded by Elliot Ness, Cleveland’s legendary safety director.
“Obviously, we have had our fair share of ups and downs across the years, but right now we are on something of an upswing,” says Kumazec, who has been instrumental in grant writing and fundraising for PAL across his more than two decades of service with the organization. “We had problems after 9/11 due to Homeland Security, and then faced some challenges when COVID-19 hit. But we’re getting back on track.”
This past summer, the Cleveland PAL had a 14-team, six-week basketball league for high school students out of Cudell Recreation Center.
“We could have done it longer than six weeks, but we were limited because high school kids are not allowed to play any more than that during the summer,” says Kumazec. “We had four girls’ teams and 10 boys’ teams, and we’re hoping to expand that next year.”
During the recent NBA All-Star Game, Nike caught wind of PAL’s summer league, supplying kids uniforms as well as making a substantial donation, says Kumazec.
“They are coming back here to do a documentary on PAL,” Kumazec adds.
Other successful sports programs from the Cleveland PAL include its seven boxing clubs and 20 football teams that play in the Cleveland Muni League at various age levels.
“Each of our boxing clubs has about 30 boxers, and we usually have about 25 to 30 kids on each football team,” says Kumazec.
While the Cleveland Police Foundation and Cleveland PAL play an important role within the city, even inner ring suburbs such as Euclid and Parma are actively involved with their respective communities.
“The Euclid Police Department is constantly working to improve its relationship with Euclid’s youth,” says Houser. “In addition to staffing a full-time school resource officer at the high school and middle school, we maintain a presence at the city’s elementary schools with regular visits.”
Euclid also has an excellent PAL, which offers activities that include weekly seasonal basketball, the Cross-Over Classic 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, Safety Town, Hooked on Fishing and a soccer camp, among many other activities.
The Parma Police Department has a program called Random Acts of Kindness, “where we accept donations and then go out and buy toys, safety equipment, or gift cards,” says Ciryak. “Those are then given out randomly to families and/or kids within the community.
“We have a Helmet Smart Program ,which is sponsored by AAA. This program encourages kids to wear their helmets while biking anywhere in the city. Officers stop these kids and issue a ‘ticket,’ which is a voucher that entitles the kids to stop by the police station on a given date to participate in an ice cream social with police officers and other children that were rewarded for wearing their helmets as well.”
Along with Parma City Schools, the Parma Police Department also participates in Safety Town, which addresses safety issues with younger children such as stranger danger, the importance of wearing a helmet while biking, red light/green light (stop and go and when to cross at an intersection), as well as the importance of wearing a safety belt.
“We have two school resource officers who interact with the kids daily throughout the school year,” says Ciryak. “One SRO is at Parma Senior High School, while the other splits his time between Shiloh Middle School and Greenbriar Middle School.
“We also have an explorer program/law post that meets every third Wednesday of the month. This program is designed to give teens and young adults with an interest in law enforcement some hands-on training while experiencing different activities such as ride-alongs and gun safety training, as well as firing and K9 usage.”
Local community involvement with law enforcement is also very important with federal law enforcement.
“In addition to our programs, the FBI offers tours of the Cleveland Field Office to junior high and high school students through our classroom outreach,” says Gregory Nelsen, Cleveland FBI special agent-in-charge.
The tours are typically two hours and include an interactive mock case presentation, a tour of the building, seeing and learning about the FBI SWAT truck and evidence response vehicle and learning how to dust for fingerprints.
“FBI Cleveland is active in the community year-round, giving presentations and sharing information at booths during school and community events, camps, festivals and safety fairs,” Nelsen adds. “Children have an opportunity to get up close with the FBI and try on an FBI tactical vest, receive age-appropriate coloring and reading materials and take an oath to become a ‘junior’ agent where they receive an FBI sticker badge. It is a great way to introduce kids to the mission of serving in the FBI — to protect the American public and uphold the U.S. Constitution.”
The Cleveland FBI also conducts outreach with Cleveland Public Schools and invites collaborations with private and charter schools.
“We also visit classrooms year-round from elementary age through college, to educate students about the Bureau, the work we do and the many career opportunities with the FBI, whether that is as an agent or professional staff,” adds Nelsen.
Naturally, such efforts are also used in recruitment and development of possible agents. The Honors Internship Program is an opportunity to set a career in motion that is ideal for undergraduate students between their junior and senior years, as well as graduate students pursuing a master’s degree or doctoral degree. The program is a paid internship and can be a direct pipeline to full-time employment after college.
The Future Agents in Training (FAIT) program runs each June and is open to high schoolers interested in learning about the FBI. The weeklong program, held at the FBI, accepts applications in the early part of the year.
The FBI is also active with public safety programs such as its Think Before You Post Campaign, which serves to remind everyone that any threat is taken with the utmost seriousness and will be quickly and thoroughly addressed by law enforcement. Hoax threats are not a joke; they are a crime.
FBI-SOS (which stands for safe online surfing), promotes safe cyber citizenship by educating students in third to eighth grades on the essentials of online security. The Bureau’s Child ID app provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and vital information about children on a smartphone in the event a child goes missing.