Police Department

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Highly Trained Officers

City of Mason police officers average eight years of professional police experience. The department is headed by a chief and two assistant chiefs. The Chief of Police holds a Doctorate of Philosophy with a focus on Public Administration. One assistant chief has a Masters of Science in Criminal Justice. Of the three chiefs, two are graduates of the Police Executive Leadership College as well as the Certified Law Enforcement Executive program. Two are graduates of the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command and two are graduates of the FBI National Academy. The three chiefs together have over 75 years of experience with the Mason Police Department.

Officers hired by the City of Mason Police Department must successfully complete a comprehensive screening process, including a thorough background investigation, a polygraph, psychological screening, medical examination, and drug screen. New officers must complete 17 weeks of state-mandated training and a 12-week City of Mason Police Field Training Program. Officers are encouraged to obtain baccalaureate and advanced degrees. They are required to qualify once a year with on- and off-duty weapons. When schedules allow, officers complete additional training each year on an electronic firearms system that focuses on prudent decision-making in the use of force.

Community Oriented Policy

Local police are supported, in large measure, because citizens prefer policing which is responsive to local desires for service and the opportunity to base policing priorities on citizen needs. To this end, the City of Mason Police Department is a community-oriented policing agency. The City of Mason Police Department believes that contemporary challenges require the police to provide full-service policing, proactive and reactive, by involving the community directly with them as partners in the process of identifying, prioritizing, and solving problems. Citizens share in the rights and responsibilities implicit in identifying, prioritizing, and solving problems as full-fledged partners with the police.

Citizens are asked to take a more active role in the solution of problems. In exchange, the community policing officers are free to work with people on developing immediate, as well as long-term, solutions for community concerns in ways that encourage mutual accountability and respect. Community policing broadens the City of Mason Police role to make a greater impact on facilitating changes today that hold the promise of making the community safer and more attractive tomorrow. Community policing officers respond to calls for service, make arrests, and write traffic citations, but they also go beyond this narrow focus to develop and monitor broad-based, long-term initiatives that can involve all elements of the community in efforts to improve the overall quality of life. As the community's ombudsman, the community policing officer acts as a link to other public and private agencies that can help in any given situation.

Officers are assigned to each of the four permanent patrol districts. Residents and business persons in their district know these officers on a first-name basis. They spend time focusing on problems identified by residents and businesses in each district, and they facilitate resolutions to these problems.

Police Safety and Services

• Traffic Crash Reports - Copies of traffic crash and arrest reports are available at the police business office. You can also download accident reports through our anonymous FTP site. Please note that if a crash involved a school bus, addendums containing the children's names are not posted to the FTP site. Please contact the Mason Police Department if you need the full report involving a school bus.   

             View traffic crash reports

• Rape Crisis Hotline - 24-hour Warren County toll-free emergency help line: 1.888.860.4084

• Towed Vehicles - To inquire about a towed or abandoned vehicle, please call the City of Mason Police Business Office at 513.229.8560 or the 24-hour non-emergency dispatch number, 513.925.2525.

• Vacation House Checks - Officers will periodically check your home while you are on vacation.

• Victim/Witness Programs - Information on services available for victims and witnesses of crimes is available from the Police Department. Such services include counseling centers, abuse shelters, service organizations, information about what to expect during the legal process, crises hotlines, and more.

Community Commitment Programs

The benefits of the City of Mason's community policing initiative are evident within the various services provided by the Police Department. A quick glance at some of these services and programs includes:

• International accreditation - The City of Mason Police Department is an internationally accredited police agency. Approximately 700 law enforcement agencies have achieved this distinction. The Mason Police Department is voluntarily measuring up to a body of standards representing the highest professional levels of law enforcement.

  Accreditation standards address six major areas: 1) law enforcement roles, responsibilities, and relationships with other agencies; 2) organization, management, and administration; 3) personnel administration; 4) law enforcement operations; 5) prisoner and court-related services; 6) auxiliary and technical services.

  The City of Mason Police Department provides proofs of compliance with approximately 477 standards. Compliance is verified by independent, credible, outside observers every three years. The police department was initially accredited in 1997 and was reaccredited after each three year period. The agency is preparing for its fifth reaccreditation in 2012.

• D.A.R.E. - The Police Department teaches the D.A.R.E. curriculum to all 6th grade public and parochial school classes in the Mason School system. The D.A.R.E officer also makes classroom visitations to all grade levels.

• School Resource Officer - The Mason Police Department is pleased to join with the Mason City Schools to place a full-time officer at Mason High School. The school setting is the perfect place to provide opportunities to model and teach young people the personal and community consequences of violence and criminal behavior; anger management skills; how to avoid dangerous situations; how to resist peer pressure; effective methods for conflict resolution, including mediation and peacemaking; and the procedures of law enforcement. The placement of an officer in the schools is not an indicator that the schools have serious problems; rather it is a proactive measure that is a logical extension of the Police Department's commitment to community service and the importance of youth as people who can help make a better community.

• Neighborhood Watch Program - When neighbors work together with law enforcement, one of the best crime fighting teams in the city is created. Getting to know your neighbors, recognizing and reporting suspicious activity, and implementing effective crime preventing strategies will make your neighborhood safer. Residents in Neighborhood Watch groups have frequent contact with district officers assigned to their neighborhoods. Upon request, police officers attend meetings of each Neighborhood Watch group to help facilitate problem resolution in each neighborhood. Neighborhood Watch has grown from a simple crime prevention program to a full-fledged cooperative partnership designed to improve the quality of life in the residential areas of the City of Mason. Call to learn if there is a Neighborhood Watch program in your area or to learn how to start one.

• Neighborhood Speed Watch - Initiated in 1994, the Mason Police Neighborhood Speed Watch is now a program recommended by the Ohio Department of Highway Safety as a viable program for municipalities experiencing traffic problems. Through this program, residents experiencing traffic speed problems are loaned a radar unit. After receiving training from a police officer, residents monitor the speed of traffic in their neighborhood. They maintain a log of vehicles found to be in violation of posted speed limits. A letter is mailed to the registered owner of each violating car identified by "Speedwatchers," asking for cooperation in maintaining safe highway conditions in the City of Mason.

• Publications - The City of Mason Police Department creates a number of publications for the community it serves. The How To Get It Done... series focuses on problems often encountered by members of the community and explains how to resolve these problems. The Mason Police Department Annual Report is distributed to elected officials, the media, and the community. Copies are available for review at the Mason Public Library.