PUBLIC SAFETY

The Oakwood Public Safety Department is one of only approximately 130 fully consolidated police and fire departments in the country. It is led by Chief Alan Hill, who is assisted by two Captains and four Lieutenants. The department includes 29 Public Safety Officers, five dispatchers, and two support staff.

All of Oakwood’s sworn officers are state-certified in law enforcement, firefighting, and emergency medical services. The department’s underlying strength is that any Oakwood officer responding to an incident is trained in all three disciplines and can take immediate action to provide public safety services.

Oakwood Public Safety Officers (PSOs) on police patrol are typically the first responders to fire and emergency medical calls. They usually arrive in less than two minutes and can quickly extinguish small fires even before the fire apparatus and other firefighters arrive. Likewise, PSOs on police shifts are trained and equipped to respond to life-threatening emergencies and take immediate action on any medical situation, even before the ambulance and paramedics arrive.

Oakwood’s Public Safety Department is the second oldest consolidated department in the United States. Formed in 1927, the concept has been very successful in providing our citizens one of the most secure and well-served cities in Ohio with an extremely quick and knowledgeable response to any emergency.

Crime reporting is categorized into two areas: “Part I” and “Other Major.” These categories are defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a uniform consistency across the nation.

Part I Crimes are part of the traditional Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines and are defined by the FBI as “Index Crimes.” These crimes include such things as Homicide, Sexual Assault, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny, and Auto Theft. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, Congress tasked the FBI with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics. Today, the FBI produces several annual statistical publications, such as Comprehensive Crime in the United States, from data provided by nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, including the City of Oakwood.