Recruitment a key topic as Lt. Gov. Husted visits with law enforcement

BOWLING GREEN — Recruitment and mental health issues have become the biggest challenges for Ohio’s law enforcement agencies, and that message was relayed to Lt. Gov. Jon Husted during his visit to Bowling Green on Monday.

He joined a roundtable with law enforcement officials from around northwest Ohio at the Wood County Sheriff’s Office to learn more about what types of issues need to be addressed.

Mr. Husted, who grew up in the northwest Ohio community of Montpelier, said that the state has invested $274 million to support law enforcement.

He detailed what the funding has been used for.

“It’s for a variety of things. It’s for body cameras, it’s for crime prevention, it’s for resiliency and training,” Mr. Husted said. “The law enforcement offices around this country right now are very stressed. There are a lot of people out there who have tried to give law enforcement a bad name. Governor [Mike] DeWine and I want to highlight all the great things they do that remind people that the police officers in this state, the law enforcement officials, are there to protect you.”

Recruiting has been one of the biggest challenges that law enforcement agencies have faced, and a strong job market has played a role in making it more difficult to entice potential new recruits.

“We’re fortunate right now that we’re almost fully staffed, but it’s challenging because there are so many jobs out there and the private industry pays very well, which is a good thing, but a lot of times we lose people to the private industry because of the difference in pay,” Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said.

Mr. Husted acknowledged that a more negative perception of law enforcement has also played a role in recruiting, and he believes that making sure Ohio’s officers and deputies feel supported by the public is an important step in solving the issue.

“If we value law and order, if we value our safety and protection, then we need to value the men and women who wear the uniform and to speak out in support of them on a daily basis,” he said. “That’s important. All of those things are important because if we want to recruit more people to the profession, they have to know they’re appreciated.”

Other than recruiting, the sheriff said that dealing with mental health issues is one of the biggest challenges that law enforcement faces, not just in Wood County, but across the country. Even though all of his deputies go through “critical incident training” to handle mental health calls, he said that there are simply not enough open beds in mental hospitals, often leaving patients in jail when they actually need professional mental care.

“That’s a huge disservice to my deputies, they did not sign up to work in a mental hospital, and it’s a huge disservice to the inmate who is in a terrible mental state,” Sheriff Wasylyshyn said. “They need to be getting psychiatric care, and they’re not getting it.”

State Rep. Haraz Ghanbari (R., Perrysburg) also joined the roundtable and said that he wants to be a part of the General Assembly’s effort to ensure Ohio’s law enforcement agencies continue to receive sufficient funding.

“Some of the dollars that the lieutenant governor spoke about today are one-time federal dollars, so first, I think we need to be cautious about relying on those dollars to always be there,” Mr. Ghanbari said. “I sit on the finance committee, looking at our state budget, looking at some of the services that we could share that might be able to free up some additional dollars to help law enforcement.”

The stop was one of two on Monday in Bowling Green for Mr. Husted, who is seeking re-election Nov. 8 on the Republican ticket led by Governor DeWine. Mr. Husted also visited Bowling Green State University to learn more about the school’s advanced manufacturing and logistics program.