Ask and Officer

Question: What is the Ohio Crime Prevention Association? 

Answer: Ed Bonchak and Kate McLaughlin, EPD 

Last year at this time we encouraged community members to join the OCPA. Please consider joining if you haven't already. The Ohio Crime Prevention Association (OCPA) was founded in 1977 by a core group of dedicated law enforcement officers concerned about the safety of Ohio residents. OCPA is the nation’s largest state crime prevention association, with a diverse membership representing law enforcement agencies, government offices, businesses, the faith community and resident groups. As the Professional Voice of Crime Prevention in Ohio, OCPA is a clearinghouse for state and national crime prevention and community policing training and resources. OCPA projects range from basic crime prevention schools and conferences, to training on important crime prevention topics, and timely publications.   

Several members of Euclid Police Department’s Community Policing Unit are crime preventions specialist through the OCPA. We provide security checks for properties, CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) security analysis for businesses, resources, presentations to various groups, organizations and schools.

EPD highly recommends checking out the OCPA website at www.ocpa-oh.org/ for more information and to register.  OCPA offers membership for individuals and organizations and includes benefits such as a resource center and lending library, training opportunities, and crime prevention specialist certification. Euclid is in OCPA District 3 which meets several times each year in different Northeast Ohio locations.  The next OCPA District 3 meeting is Thursday, March 15th in Solon.  Individuals, businesses, organizations and churches are all welcome to join.  If you are considering this, contact the Community Policing Unit at 289-8449 and we’ll let you know the time and place.