Over the next several months Jim will be working tirelessly to get his message to everyone in Hamilton County. We need a Sheriff that is dedicated to enforcing the law and keeping our neighborhoods and streets safe. Right now, there is a lack of leadership, but Jim has a proven record of putting public safety over politics. Jim will ensure that our deputies have the resources and manpower needed to do the job and keep our neighborhoods safe.

As we see the fentanyl crisis make its way from the southern border into our neighborhoods and streets, it is becoming clearer that this is not just an issue in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. The fentanyl epidemic is now a nationwide issue, including right here in Hamilton County. We need a Sheriff like Jim, who will prioritize keeping fentanyl and other dangerous drugs off our streets by implementing a multi-step plan that will treat, educate, and eliminate heroin in Hamilton County.

The other major issue we are seeing here in Hamilton County is the rise in violent crime in our community. The staffing shortage is becoming a serious issue for public safety in our neighborhoods. We are losing deputies every week, floors are being closed at the Justice Center due to lack of staffing. This is a leadership issue. We have no clear vision and that is causing these critical issues to compound. Jim has a plan to fix these issues with strong leadership, and right-size the Sheriff’s Office, just as he did for the two terms he served as Sheriff previously.

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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.

Treatment

When Jim Neil took office in 2013, he ordered an evaluation of the inmate population. It became clear that the Justice Center was ground zero for two major issues plaguing our communities: mental illness and addiction. Following this evaluation, he partnered with the University of Cincinnati to identify potential solutions. This later led to a partnership with the Talbert House to provide counseling and evidence based programs to the inmates.

As Sheriff, Jim Neil went after drug dealers and traffickers. Under his leadership, the Hamilton County Justice Center became the largest detox facility in the area. The Hamilton County Justice Center was the first jail in the state to assist inmates experiencing opioid withdrawals, which resulted in safer conditions for the inmates and our officers. Sheriff Neil also championed evidenced-based treatment for inmates experiencing substance abuse. He opened male and female pods within the Justice Center, which helped hundreds of inmates with their substance abuse disorders.

Education

In addition to improving treatment for inmates, Jim Neil implemented a robust public-education campaign to inform the community about problems and issues associated with the heroin epidemic. His office posted billboards around the county requesting that citizens report heroin dealers to law-enforcement agencies. These billboards generated a 1,000-percent increase in telephone tips from the general public to the Regional Enforcement Narcotic Unit.

Jim Neil’s Office also held Heroin Forums around the county where former heroin addicts, police and corrections officers, a medical doctor, and the county coroner discussed the problem, what work is being done to address the issue, and what is planned in the future.

Enforcement

As Sheriff, Jim Neil took a lead role in pursuing the arrest of heroin dealers and worked aggressively with other law-enforcement agencies to remove heroin from our community.

Neil facilitated the creation of the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition Task Force, which is a coalition of law-enforcement agencies working on the heroin epidemic. His office supplied deputies and other resources to this task force, which later became a state-wide model for law enforcement agencies dealing with a heroin epidemic.

A total of eight officers from local and state law enforcement agencies in Hamilton County were assigned to the task force, whose sole mission was to combat the heroin trade on a countywide basis.

Combating the opioid epidemic will be a top priority for Jim Neil as Hamilton County’s next Sheriff. Jim will continue to build and expand upon the programs he founded and will ensure that drug dealers and traffickers do not find a warm welcome in Hamilton County.

In January of 2023, the current Sheriff made an unprecedented move by temporarily closing the intake of new prisoners to the Justice Center due to their inability to properly staff the jail.

Ensuring that we employ enough officers to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the Sheriff’s Office must be a top priority. We must make the Sheriff’s Office a place where talented individuals choose to spend their career in service to our community.

As the next Sheriff, Jim Neil will prioritize officer recruitment and retention to ensure that we are recruiting the best officers here in Hamilton County.

As Sheriff, Jim Neil empowered his officers to carry out their duties and keep the public safe. From day one, his top priority was public safety and enforcement of the law. He made it known throughout his office, and throughout Hamilton County, that criminal activity would not be tolerated. Jim used his decades of experience in law enforcement to lead the Sheriff’s Office and make it a model for its effectiveness in fighting crime.

By prioritizing public safety, Sheriff Jim Neil also expanded the sheriff’s law-enforcement responsibilities to include the Villages of Silverton, Arlington Heights, Lincoln Heights, Elmwood Place, and Cleves. These villages requested police services from the Sheriff’s Office after they eliminated their police departments because of budgetary or operational issues.

The villages and townships that received police services from the Sheriff’s Office reimbursed the office for those services, which created additional revenue to cover the costs. By providing these services, Jim Neil allowed these townships and municipalities to save money and concentrate on other government business while allowing the Sheriff’s Office to deliver professional and efficient law-enforcement services in their communities.
As Sheriff, Jim Neil will work collaboratively with elected officials all across Hamilton County to ensure that our neighborhoods are safe places to live, work, and raise a family. Regardless of where you live, you will be assured that the Sheriff’s Office will help you during your moment of crisis. Public safety is, and will continue to be, Jim Neil’s top priority.

Organizations

Cincinnati FOP Queen City Lodge No. 69
Cincinnati Fire Fighters Union, IAFF Local 48
Cincinnati Federation of Teachers
Hamilton County Democratic Party
AFL-CIO
Cincinnati Building Construction Trades
Ohio Civil Service Employees Association
Teamsters Local 100
Equality Cincinnati Political Action Committee
United Food & Commercial Workers Local 75
International Union of Painters & Allied Trades Council, District 6

Elected Officials

Ohio State Senator Cecil Thomas, District 9
Wayne Coates, Hamilton County Recorder
Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County Auditor
Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, Hamilton County Coroner
John Cranley, Mayor of Cincinnati
Ron Hirth, Mayor of Golf Manor
John A. Smith, Mayor Of Silverton
Charles Johnson, Mayor of Forest Park
P.G. Sittenfeld, Cincinnati City Councilman
Wendell Young, Cincinnati City Councilman