2021 Police Department Annual Report

The police department is responsible for providing safety services to the community, including crime prevention and education.

Police Department Staffing

• two full-time customer service representatives, and
• one full-time mayor’s court clerk.
• 22 full-time officers,
  • the police chief
  • one assistant chief (captain),
  • five sergeants,
  • two detectives,
  • one full-time Sycamore High School resource officer (SRO),
  • one part-time junior high resource officer (SRO),
  • one traffic safety officer, and
  • ten patrol officers.

In 2021, officers handled approximately 9,215 incidents, including:

• 8 Burglaries
• 67 Thefts
• 15 Auto thefts
• 34 Domestic Violence incidents
• 39 Operating vehicle under the influence arrests
• 501 auto crash reports
  • 398 property damage only
  • 101 injury crashes
  • 2 fatalities
  • 2 pedestrian related
• Issued 1,653 citations
• 178 arrests

In conjunction with the DEA, our department maintains a narcotics and prescription pill drop-off box in the Safety Center lobby. This allows the public a  safe and convenient method of disposal of unused medicines. Each year the collection process yields several hundred pounds of prescription pills which are destroyed to prevent misuse and other environmental issues if disposed improperly. This service accounts for a large percentage of the visits to the Safety Center.

"Ricky," a Dutch Malinois, along with his handler, Officer Alex Janszen, completed an intensive training program at Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, in late 2018 for drug detection and patrol duties.

In 2021 Ricky logged 205 training hours, 37 detection exercises, and 96 patrol exercises. He attends regular bi-monthly training with his canine training group.

In his patrol duties, he has been used in 13 drug/article searches, and 14 tracks of individuals, which combined has assisted 12 agencies with 11 narcotic seizures and 6 arrests.

An officer from the department is assigned as a liaison to the Terrorism Early Warning Group (TEWG).  The TEWG is a regional cooperative effort among public safety and health agencies throughout the greater Cincinnati area to address potential terrorist activity.  Increased information and resource sharing among local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies continue to improve the overall effort of combating terrorism.

The department continued to support the Drug Abuse Reduction Task Force (DART).  Montgomery is a founding member of the task force formed in 1988, and periodically assigns officers to the task force.  DART is comprised of approximately 14 local law enforcement agencies that primarily address drug enforcement at the local level.  The task force also has a pharmaceutical diversion unit that investigates physicians, nursing staff, and pharmacy staff suspected of abusing drugs, forging, altering or writing illegal prescriptions or trafficking in drugs.

The department currently has an officer working with the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Cincinnati Task Force. This officer works on higher level cases and when needed assists with local cases through DART.

The partnership between the police department and Sycamore Community Schools continued in 2021.  The school resource officer (SRO) at Sycamore High School and the part-time Sycamore Junior High SRO worked with students and staff to provide a safe and secure learning environment.  The SRO positions are funded through a partnership with Sycamore Community Schools with the district paying 60 percent of the officer’s salary.  In addition to the day-to-day activities, the SROs attended many extracurricular activities, such as dances, athletic events, and meetings.  Officers also presented a seat belt safety program to third graders at Montgomery Elementary School.