Mahoning County Sheriff's Office history

The earliest record of a police presence in Boardman is the swearing in of David Fitch as the township’s first constable on April 7, 1806.

The first trial resulted in a hung jury, so the proceedings were shipped to Youngstown, where Sterling was convicted and executed on April 21, 1877.

By the early 1900’s, the township continued to grow in population.

In 1915, voters of the township passed a bond issue for a centralized school building, and a high school was organized.

The Growing Years After World War I, Austintown’s population was approaching 2,000 and by the early 1920’s the Wickliffe area began to develop.

C.L. Baldwin was the victor in the 1921 election and took up his position as the next two-year constable.

In August of 1936, the constable’s office moved into the brick WPA building at 5105 Market Street, sharing it with the Boardman Fire Department.

In 1939 when William Hacker and Frank French were part-time constables, a bill was passed that required all constables to wear a uniform and have special auto markings to make them more visible.

The 1940 census shows Boardman’s population was 7,881.

The minutes of the July 7th, 1945 Austintown Township Trustees meeting record that the trustees were upset with “[the] sheriff being called out several times due to loud noise and general disturbances” at township taverns.

On August 19, 1946, the two elected constables , John Grubis and Arthur Young, who would later go on to be elected a township trustee, attended the trustees meeting.

In January 1948 they were not rehired, and the township returned to elected constables working for fees only.

In January of 1950, Don Robinson was sworn in as the Township’s first part-time appointed constable and was paid $50 for the first half of February.

Trustees budgeted $600 for the 1951 Police Department, and raised the constables’ pay to $75 per month.

By January of 1952, the Department had three full-time constables, with Don Robinson as Boardman’s first police chief.

In 1953, the State of Ohio enacted law, which for the first time defined the roll of a township constable.

On January 1, 1954, 24-hour police service went into effect with a rotating fireman to answer the phone between midnight and 6:00 a.m.

In May of 1955 the officer roster grew to seven officers.

The constables gained a third part-time constable in March 1956 and their space in the Mahoning Ave. fire station was now being referred to in documents as “Office of Police Constables”. Since the men were not “police officers” under Ohio definition, this was technically correct.

The budget for the Office of Police Constables was increased to $11,000.00 in 1957, and by April of that year, there were four constables.

Club Raided; 13 Arrested”. Another headline in the April 10, 1958 Niles Daily Times read “Big Time Bookie Joint Raided in Austintown”. Another undated Youngstown Vindicator headline gave the details “Grab Green Moonshine, Man, Woman in Raid”.

A milestone was reached in September 1959 when at a special session, the constables “presented the trustees with the keys for anew 1959 Dodge Pursuit Police Cruiser purchased by the constables from the receipts of a benefit show.” Austintown now had its first police car.

The constables donated a 1960 Ford police cruiser to the trustees on July 16, 1960.

At the start of 1961 the budget was now listed as the “Police Protection Fund” and was set at $40,000.00 for the year.

Noel W. Featsent replaced Carder as Chief Constable on January 8, 1962.

In response to unruly teenagers in the Township, in 1963 the Boardman Police Department sent Charles Price to Columbus for a workshop on juvenile delinquency.

On July 15, 1964, James H. Hazlett Jr. was named Chief of Police.

In December 1965, Boardman purchased its first radar unit for $995.

By 1966, BPD was declared a “full police department” by township trustees, meaning there was one chief, ten full-time constables, and three part-time constables, all acting in various capacities and at levels such as sergeant and captain.

In the fall of 1968, the Department commissioned an investigative unit, thus expanding the Department’s specialization.

By 1969 the general fund could no longer support the needed police services.

All full-time officers hired since the 1970’s have come from the auxiliary ranks.

Members of the police department joined the Fraternal Order of Police in February 1974, and formed Austintown F.O.P. Lodge 126 to be their bargaining unit for contract negotiations.

In May 1975, Boardman installed five statewide Law Enforcement Emergency Radio Network (LEERN) radios in police cruisers so officers on duty could keep up-to-date with situations developing in neighboring areas.

In April of 1976, the Department appointed its first juvenile officer, working with cases involving the Township’s youth.

By September 1977, a dispute between the police officers in Lodge 126 and the township arose.

Mary Lou Mueller became Boardman’s first female police officer in March of 1978, paving the way for women of future generations by her bravery and determination.

These problems were resolved when the new police station was opened April 10, 1979 at 92 Ohltown Rd, to house the departments 28 officers, office staff and dispatchers.

On January 15, 1980 longtime officer Lt.

Due to the number of prisoners being transported to Austintown County Court #4 three days a week, a new “paddy wagon”, now more properly called a “Prisoner Transport Vehicle” was placed in service in early 1984.

On April 30, 1987 John E. Cannon was named Chief of Police after the retirement of Jack Scott.

In 1989, Boardman Police became the first department in Mahoning County and one of a few in the country to implement the DARE Program, short for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

In the spring of 1991, the Department purchased a German Shepherd police dog for use in criminal investigations.

On May 22, 1992, Township officials dedicated the new government center.

The last unit created within APD was the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Unit in 1994.

In 1997, the Department purchased a computerized voice stress analyzer for $10,920 from The National Institute for Truth Verification.

In December of 2002, the Boardman Police Department lost one of its finest.

When Youngstown Police Officer Michael Hartzell was shot and killed in the spring of 2003, officers at Boardman Police worked around the clock as mutual aid assistance to find the suspect, calling out the entire detective bureau.