Richland County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Steve Schivinski has been assigned to the METRICH Enforcement Unit as a fulltime detective.
“We know that there’s a big drug problem in Richland County and we think that we’re better off to work together to solve a lot of these problems,” said Sheriff Steve Sheldon.
He noted that Detective Dawn Brown was the most recent detective assigned to METRICH from the Sheriff’s Office. “When she retired [last spring], we were so shorthanded that we were unable to put somebody else out there, so what we did is that in the past year, we’ve hired 21 corrections officers and nine deputies. Most of those deputies were replacing retirees, but it’s given us the opportunity, since we’ve hired those nine deputies, that now we feel we can place somebody out at METRICH, and we’re hoping to continue our hiring process this year with even more deputies,” the sheriff stated.
Mansfield Police Chief and METRICH Program Director Ken Coontz said, “I’m really excited to bring a sheriff’s deputy back into the METRICH drug taskforce…We’ve been understaffed like everybody else for the last several years, so it’s nice to see us beef that up.”
He added, “I’ve known Steve [Schivinski] for over 20 years and he’s a great deputy. I have no doubt that he will be a great detective.”
Having belonged to the Sheriff’s Office for a little over 23 years, Schivinski began working at the Richland County Jail in 1990 and later graduated from the Ohio Highway Patrol Academy. In addition to serving as a road deputy for the Sheriff’s Office, he’s also been a D.A.R.E. officer.
“I was close to retirement, but when this opportunity came up I took advantage of it,” said Schivinski in reference to his new role as METRICH detective.
He also discussed how his previous work experience introduced him to what’s to come with his new position. “Being a road deputy, when we’d get calls about domestics, family disputes, or whatever else, there’d always be alcohol and drugs involved. And that’s always something that’s going to be out there,” said Schivinski.
Schivinski’s assignment to METRICH is following Shelby Police Department’s placement of Officer Aaron Bushey to the drug taskforce last Friday.
Chief Coontz explained the possibility of other police departments joining METRICH.
“Other departments would stick someone in [METRICH] if they could, but at this point I don‘t think it’s feasible for most of the other police departments, so they contribute in a different way. They contribute through their intelligent sharing, and our officers are in contact with road deputies in Lexington, Ontario, Bellville, Butler, and so on, so the other agencies are doing their part.”
METRICH Enforcement Unit is the largest decentralized task force in Ohio, with its ten-county affiliation. It began in 1986 and there are over 600,000 residents in the METRICH region. As stated on the METRICH website, this taskforce aims at improving the quality of life for citizens of the METRICH region by reducing the availability of illegal drugs and weapons through community partnerships and by promoting safe and secure neighborhoods.
“I’m really excited to bring a sheriff’s deputy back into the METRICH drug taskforce…We’ve been understaffed like everybody else for the last several years, so it’s nice to see us beef that up,” said Mansfield Police Chief Ken Coontz.
