WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today announced the Cincinnati Police Department Military Liaison Group and the Cincinnati Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center as the recipient of the 2021 L. Anthony Sutin Award for Innovative Law Enforcement and Community Partnerships. This Cincinnati, Ohio team is being honored for their innovative and impactful work with military veterans.

“Creative, meaningful partnerships between law enforcement and the community are at the heart of community policing,” said Robert Chapman, Acting Director of the COPS Office. “To see how the efforts of individuals determined to help veterans in need has had an impact on an entire state – and possibly the country – shows how community policing can change lives. It’s a privilege to honor this team.”

The program began with a desire on the part of the department to help veterans in need; it eventually expanded to the creation of a military liaison unit in the department. A subsequent partnership with the Cincinnati VA Medical Center became the model for agencies across the state. The program has resulted in long-term, positive change in the Cincinnati Police Department, the VA Medical Center, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the Hamilton County Court System, the Hamilton County Crisis Intervention Training Program, and law enforcement agencies across the state.

The L. Anthony Sutin Award for Innovative Law Enforcement and Community Partnerships recognizes the efforts of innovative and sustained law enforcement and community partnerships whose unique collaborations have transformed public safety in their communities. This award is bestowed on those partnerships in which law enforcement is actively engaged with the community in a multifaceted manner that has been sustained over time and has resulted in positive, observable public safety outcomes or advances in public trust. The award is named in memory of Tony Sutin, who served as a founder and Deputy Director of the COPS Office from its creation in 1994 until 1996. After serving as the Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General of the United States, then as acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, he joined the faculty of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia in 1999. He quickly became dean and served in that capacity until his untimely death on January 16, 2002.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 135,000 officers.

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