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OCLA Interview Essay

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RITTMAN — The city’s police department has been making news with how it’s dealing with the opiate epidemic, officers stepping up and taking on more responsibility and making an arrest after a rash of stolen vehicles.

But, something is happening behind the scenes, and Chief Ray Arcuri is extremely proud about it: The Rittman Police Department has received provisional certification as an Ohio Collaborative Law Enforcement Agency, meaning the police force has made a commitment to have the best standards in its policies and procedures.

The OCLEA certification process got its start in December 2014 when Gov. John Kasich created the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations after police shooting incidents in Cleveland, the Dayton area and elsewhere in the country. …show more content…

Thomas Vaughn conducted the Rittman on-site visit on behalf of the Ohio Collaborative.

Arcuri said he believes the visit went well.

Vaughn concurred. He originally went to assessment training as a way to understand what his department needed to do in order to become certified. He later became involved in assessing other departments. He also did the site visit for Medway.

“Rittman was very organized, and they had all the documents I needed to review,” Vaughn said. As an assessor, Vaughn had to interview a police officer and a supervisor regarding use of force. He needed to make sure both had an understanding of the use of force policy and what Supreme Court rulings govern the use of force.

“They did well,” Vaughn said.

Rittman should be shaking its “provisional” status soon, Vaughn said. He has sent his report to the state, where it is being reviewed. He has seven days to submit his report, and the state has 30 days to finalize it. Vaughn visited Rittman Feb. 9.

One of the issues Rittman had to deal with centered in an old policy and procedures manual, which was on paper. Arcuri estimated it was from the 1980s. It had to be updated and converted to an electronic

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