Press Releases

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Mayors Alliance announced a new initiative to bring mayors, police chiefs, and national experts together to learn about and build on successful public safety strategies in Ohio and across the country. This new Public Safety 360° Initiative will focus on local strategies to reduce violence and better address the variety of public safety needs in our communities. It will be led by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, and the bipartisan co-chairs of the Mayors and Police Chiefs Leadership Committee, Beavercreek Mayor Bob Stone and Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith.

“Safe and vibrant cities are foundational to unlocking the promise of economic opportunity for our residents,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb. “It is very important that we work together – within our cities and with local leaders across the state – to address the challenges of public safety, and that we do so with a 360-degree approach that includes both enforcement and prevention.”

This initiative will be convened through the Ohio Mayors Alliance. It will begin with a series of virtual workshops for mayors, police chiefs, and other public safety personnel to understand best practices for both crime prevention and enforcement strategies. The initiative will focus on topics such as utilizing gun crime intelligence tools, as well as best practices for emerging strategies such as community violence intervention and deploying co-responder models.

“As communities and law enforcement face challenges like never before, we must bring our police chiefs and mayors together to help each other learn about emerging strategies that will help us keep our cities safe,” said Beavercreek Mayor Bob Stone. “This new initiative will help give local leaders the strategies and information they need to deal with a nexus of complex challenges that include crime, addiction, and mental health.”

In addition to learning about implementation efforts in our cities, the Ohio Mayors Alliance will also bring in national experts to help local leaders understand what various public safety strategies are working in other cities across the country. It will also include partnering with various state and federal agencies to learn, share information, and improve collaborative efforts across jurisdictions.

“Cities across the state have been deploying new strategies to combat violence, reduce gun crimes, and improve the safety and quality-of-life for all our residents,” said Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith. “Through this new Public Safety 360° Initiative, we will bring together local leaders to learn from one another and improve upon these emerging public safety strategies.”

The Ohio Mayors Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of mayors in Ohio’s 30 largest cities. For more information, please visit: OhioMayorsAlliance.org.

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