As Sheriff, Jim Neil ensured that his office worked with other law-enforcement agencies to combat crime and improve the quality of life in Hamilton County.
While he was Sheriff, Jim provided resources — including officers, staff, and funding — to numerous state and regional police agencies, including the Hamilton County Police Association Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT), the U.S. Marshall’s Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST), the Sex Offenders Residency Verification Task Force, the Regional Enforcement Narcotics Unit (RENU), Intelligence Unit (INTEL), Regional Electronics and Computer Investigative Unit (RECI), and the Special Response Team (SRT).
Sheriff Neil worked with other law-enforcement agencies and helped to facilitate the creation of the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition Task Force. The Sheriff’s Office supplied deputies and other resources to the task force, which had become a state-wide model for law enforcement agencies dealing with a heroin epidemic.
During Jim’s tenure as Sheriff, the office joined with the Cincinnati Police Department, Woodlawn Police Department, Lockland Police Department, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to create the Southwest Ohio Violent Crimes Task Force in September 2013.
The Violent Crimes Task Force allows agencies to combine their resources and work together across jurisdictional boundaries to investigate criminal conduct and arrest violent and dangerous suspects who had committed violent crimes.
Sheriff Jim Neil also assigned a captain to serve as director of the Greater Cincinnati Fusion Center, a regional cooperative effort among public safety and health agencies in the Greater Cincinnati area whose primary purpose is to combat potential terrorist activity and has assigned officers to several other joint task forces.
During his tenure as Sheriff, Jim Neil proved that, by working collaboratively with multiple agencies and community partners, the Sheriff’s Office can improve services to the residents of Hamilton County, increase community safety, and reduce taxpayer waste. As your next Sheriff, Jim Neil will continue this work and will make the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office the gold standard in the State of Ohio.