WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is pleased to feature the University of Cincinnati (OH) Department of Public Safety’s Police Division (UCPD) as its “Community Policing in Action” Photo Contest winner for December 2021.

Though policing a large urban campus is their primary job, UCPD officers also work with the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) to maintain the safety of the surrounding neighborhoods. And, as shown in the winning photo of C’Zaya Johnson sharing a secret with former UCPD Officer Wendy Martin during the department’s December 2019 Shop with a Cop event, the officers go out of their way to maintain good relations with all of the area residents, including the youngest.

Though it’s likely the most popular event with the area’s children, Shop with a Cop is only one of the UCPD’s community activities. The department engages with local people in the neighborhoods surrounding the university’s campus on a personal level during daily foot patrols, as well as at community meetings and local events such as the CPD’s National Night Out in Districts Four and Five.

View the winning photo on the COPS Office website, as well as on the COPS Office’s official Twitter profile and Facebook page. UCPD’s commitment to community policing and its dedication to protecting members of the University of Cincinnati campus and surrounding areas are also chronicled in the December 2021 edition of the COPS Office e-newsletter, the Community Policing Dispatch.

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 agency 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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