Matthew Rakola / Ohio Attorney General's Office
And the state’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, has filed a lawsuit against five of the biggest prescription painkiller manufacturers accusing them of getting Ohioans hooked on opioids. John Kasich signed an order that would limit opioid prescription painkillers - which experts say have led many drug abusers to heroin - to no more than seven days for adults. And Butler County, which has a population of 368,100, recorded 210 fatal drug overdose deaths last year, according to the state Department of Health. "The state helps fund the purchase of naloxone for first responders - including law enforcement."Ohio is one of several Rust Belt states that has been hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic raging across the nation. Dispatchers told the Examiner that Dion didn’t always fill out reports after responding to calls, which complicated record-keeping.ĭion said he hadn’t heard such complaints."Local law enforcement in Ohio can decide whether to carry naloxone, and many are choosing to do so," the spokesman said. The county board took over management of the county’s 911 center this year, after dispatchers complained about working for Dion. “Some of the people that left probably needed to go,” Mach said of sheriff’s office employees. He said he’s seen more patrols in the rural areas near his home. One of Dion’s defenders on the county board, David Mach of Linwood, said he doesn’t believe the critics. Several Butler County board members have expressed frustrations with Dion during their public meetings. City officials and Dion said they have been discussing the potential costs of adding more deputies. But City Council members told him at a recent meeting that his office had not enforced their ordinances consistently. They said taxpayers weren’t getting what they paid for.ĭion said he has provided the services under the town’s contract. And training replacements costs taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars each time, he said.ĭavid City leaders pushed in a recent meeting to renegotiate the city’s contract with the sheriff’s office for enforcing local ordinances. Recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers matters more now because fewer people want the job, Maguire said. (WSFA) - A Butler County deputy has died, the sheriffs office has. Maguire, a longtime sheriff’s deputy in Douglas County, said law enforcement officers should not have to worry whether their vehicle is safe or whether their boss will talk to them. Sometimes, he said, it’s about working conditions and making sure people can do the job safely. He said being able to negotiate a contract with a county isn’t always about higher wages or benefits. Jim Maguire, president of the Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police, said smaller sheriff’s offices where deputies aren’t represented by unions have faced similar problems elsewhere. The deputies also tried going to the county board, but board members declined to respond since the sheriff is an elected official.ĭeputies tried to organize a union, but the effort fizzled after Dion secured raises for jail employees, leading them to back out of the bargaining unit. Dion also alleged in the letter that Betzen had pushed cruisers too hard.Ĭurrent and former deputies said they have tried meeting with Dion but said he ended a key meeting in minutes, without addressing their issues. One issue Dion raised was that Betzen changed his own tire but reported that the garage had changed it. He said Betzen had gone above Dion’s head to complain and criticized Betzen for including inaccurate information in his complaint. The sheriff sent a letter terminating Betzen.
He said he was scared about engaging in pursuits with a tire showing cords, especially on gravel roads. An employee of a garage that maintains sheriff’s vehicles told Betzen that Dion had told the garage to replace the flat with a used tire.īetzen, who didn’t mind, said he noticed that the replacement tire was the same one removed from a sheriff’s vehicle earlier because it was showing cords, too. Then Betzen, after complaining about the condition of his tires, got a flat. “He always had issues with that, and with me wanting to get preventative maintenance done,” Betzen said. But Betzen argued that they needed to be safe until then. Betzen said things soured after he suggested deputies keep a log of maintenance issues regarding their cruisers.ĭion shot down several of his repair requests, pointing to the pending replacement of the Dodge cruisers with sport-utility vehicles. Betzen and Dion got along well when he started in 2018.
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