ROCK CREEK – Sheriff William Niemi related his department’s work to curb crime, progress on – and the necessity of – a jail expansion project and changes over the years in the culture of policing during a Business Compass meeting hosted by the Rock Creek Area Chamber of Commerce and held Friday, May 15, at Water Street Winery.
He began with what he characterized as “major” layoffs at the sheriff’s office, beginning in 2005.
“I was one of them,” Niemi said.
Road patrol manpower became so stretched that the county only had one radio car patrolling 720 square miles at the time.
Then-Common Pleas Court Judge Alfred Mackey made national headlines in April 2010, when those budget cuts drastically reduced the sheriff’s road patrol. The judge publicly advised residents and jurors to “arm themselves” for protection.
Mackey’s remarks sparked widespread debate on self-defense and law-enforcement funding.
Niemi moved on to the jail expansion, which he characterized as a matter of necessity.
“We are always full,” he said.
Bed turnover is so low that people being held at city jails in Ashtabula, Conneaut and Geneva frequently must stay there until space opens at the county jail. He also said people detained for nonviolent crimes are typically issued a summons to appear in court, rather than being booked into the jail.
Niemi said there are several factors contributing to this backlog – the size of the jail, a reduction in the number of certified beds by the state, increased need among inmates for mental and physical healthcare services and an increase in the county’s crime rate.
Niemi illustrated his point with the case of Odraye Jones, now Alik Allah U Akbar, who was convicted of the 1997 murder of Ashtabula police officer William D. Glover Jr.
In August 2022, a federal appeals court threw out his death sentence, ruling the penalty phase of his trial was tainted by racist testimony from a clinical psychologist.
Jones’ conviction stands, but he is undergoing a lengthy resentencing process in the Common Pleas court. He has been held at the Ashtabula County Jail and has been actively representing himself in these ongoing proceedings.
“It’s absurd,” Niemi said.
Other consequences of the crowding are that people sentenced to jail terms for operating a vehicle while impaired will take time off work to serve their time and are turned away for lack of space and must reschedule.
In the interim, the sheriff’s office has a contract with the Geauga County Jail for space until the expansion can be completed.
“How do you expect me to keep people safe when I have nowhere to put them?” Niemi said.
When he took office in 2021, the county had over 300 registered sex offenders, many of whom had their address of record listed as the county jail. Niemi said he bent efforts toward tracking them down and making sure they were in compliance with the law. The county now has 205 registered offenders, according to Niemi.
One of the office’s most important areas of focus is in combating illegal drugs, with the Crime Enforcement Agency of Ashtabula County (CEAAC) task force leading the way.
Niemi said he is “grant aggressive” in seeking state and federal funds to cover the added costs of CEAAC detectives.
In 2025, in addition to cash and firearms, CEAAC seized 1,973 grams of methamphetamine; 117 grams of cocaine (mostly powder, rather than crack), 40 dose units of fentanyl, 28 grams of heroin and 10 grams of psilocybin mushrooms.
Niemi also said there have been a lot of changes in public attitudes toward law-enforcement and resulting changes in the culture of policing since he began his career in the late 1980s.
Inmates at the jail are less healthy, he said, requiring more medical and mental-health care than in previous times. He said there is both more drug crime and more violent crime than 40 years ago in Ashtabula County.
He said his deputies also get less compliance and respect from suspects and the public at large.
Funding is a perennial problem for local law-enforcement across the area, which has led to some problems.
Niemi said that the dearth of new recruits departments were dealing with a few years ago has largely corrected itself, but that the lack of new officers – along with resignations and retirements – led departments across the region to raise pay rates to keep and attract officers.
This led to a lot of turnovers and several of what Niemi called “problem children” officers. He said he had taken the option of having fewer deputies to maintain standards at the sheriff’s office.
In closing, Niemi said local governments should look at pooling their resources to save on costs and have more uniform and efficient law-enforcement.
