Mar 1, 2024
Cleveland, OH – The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Foundation recognizes and has named the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) as the March 2024 "Agency of the Month" for their outstanding community policing efforts.
In 2019, the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and Law Enforcement Foundation Community Relations and Engagement Committee began a new program named "Sharing Ohio’s Best" to help bring awareness to the amazing work that agencies do all over Ohio to promote positive policing.
According to the Community Relations and Engagement Committee, GCRTA’s Transit Police Department was recognized and named "Agency of the Month" because of how they engulfed themselves in community relationships by forming their own Community Engagement Unit.
In 2023, this Community Engagement Unit either participated in 178 occasions including holiday events, school details, parades, touch-a truck, and large community events.
Recently GCRTA’s Transit Police partnered with CL3, an organization that combined Cleveland's major professional sports teams to create lasting transformational social change in communities across Northeast Ohio. They also partnered with the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging by delivering food to seniors in their medically tailored home delivery program.
"I greatly appreciate the recognition of our GCRTA Transit Police Department’s Community Engagement Unit efforts," said GCRTA Chief of Police, Deirdre R. Jones. "The implementation of this new unit regularly provides opportunities to meet residents in their community and has laid the foundation towards ongoing, continuous improvement in community relations."
The Community Relations and Engagement Committee compiles submissions from agencies and selects one each month to be recognized. Each agency is eligible. Typically, the committee focuses on creativity and how the program impacts the individual community. Recent programs that have been recognized include a teen driving course, programs to help the disabled, and programs focusing on community safety.