A new broom is sweeping through the Thompson Township Police Department in the hands of Chief Jeremy Jesenovec.
A new broom is sweeping through the Thompson Township Police Department in the hands of Chief Jeremy Jesenovec.
Hired last May, Jesenovec, 53, installed a new lieutenant — former township Police Chief Bill Holbart, who is also chairman of the Geauga Safety Council and a former Montville Township fire chief — to replace Bob Marshall after he resigned.
The chief then began an ongoing search for new officers.
Josh Miley, who has been with the department for seven years, and the recently-hired Kristen Wheeler are certified officers, the chief said during an interview Feb. 21 inside the department’s new station at 6757 Madison Road.
“I’m trying to get it organized and cleaned up,” he said, referring to his staff and the two-story house on the square. “I want to professionalize the department.”
That includes ongoing training for officers, as well as updating records, policies and procedures for the part-time staff.
Jesenovec uses a program called Lexipol, which provides a library of enforcement policies and automatically updates them in sync with state and federal legislation, as well as court decisions, according to its website.
Lexipol has a training platform that provides online courses for officers to meet training requirements and also provides grant assistance to make the police budget go farther, according to the site.
“Many departments use it,” Jesenovec said, adding he has past experience using the program.
Officers must have 24 hours of continuing professional training a year, he said.
Community Oriented
Jesenovec said policing a rural community is very different from suburban and urban law enforcement.
Felonies are rare and even traffic tickets are seldom issued, he said.
“We don’t have a lot of calls we have to investigate,” the chief said, noting officers mainly respond to traffic accidents and other 9-1-1 calls.
“We’re not here to write a lot of tickets,” he said. “We want to establish a good relationship with the community.”
Chimney fires are a common call this time of year and officers on duty will respond to lend a hand to the fire department and support the family, he said.
When a home burned recently and displaced the family, his officers dug into their own pockets to help the victims out, the chief said.
That illustrates the kind of personnel Jesenovec is hoping to attract.
The police department could use another three to five part-time officers, he said, adding he would like to have enough personnel to fill one full shift per day.
“The idea is to support the residents who support us,” he said, adding he works 20 to 30 hours per week and does some paperwork for the department from his home in Willowick.
When not there, he can be reached through the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center.
More community-orientation officers would benefit the residents, Jesenovec said.
“I feel it’s very important we bring in qualified people with a community focus,” he said.
Due Diligence
When Thompson Township Trustees were searching for a chief last year, they took advantage of Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand’s offer to run thorough background checks on candidates, said Trustee Joe Cindric, liaison between trustees and the police department.
The department had endured a rocky few years, with Holbart resigning when a previous board of trustees hired Christopher DiDomenico in June of 2022 as chief and fired him almost a year later when it was discovered he was not certified.
They subsequently hired Mitchell Kaspy in May 2023, but he resigned in August, citing personal reasons.
As a result, the current board of trustees made due diligence their focus when searching for their next chief.
Jesenovec was sworn in as chief May 1, 2024. He is a part-time instructor at the Lakeland Community College police academy.
In his application, Jesenovec said the rural nature of Thompson appealed to him, as well as the fact that, despite difficulties in hiring a chief, the residents voted for a 1.5-mill police renewal levy to keep the department going.
“That was one of the things I was impressed with,” the chief said.
One of his first assignments was to move the department from the administration building on the south end of the square to a renovated structure a few hundred feet north.
The files and some furniture were moved from the old office, he said.
The new Thompson Administrative Office, which also houses the township zoning department office for Zoning Inspector Noell Sivertsen on the second floor, features a steel ramp to the front door, a computer and security room in the front of the building, a conference room in the former dining area and a large kitchen.
The carpet in Jesenovec’s office has yet to be replaced with vinyl flooring and a vintage wooden desk takes up much of the space. He said he wants to install lockers at the back of the kitchen for his officers.
The facility is a work in progress, he said.
Cindric said the old barn in the rear was demolished last year and a two-bay garage built to house the township’s two cruisers.
The rough backyard will be leveled and planted this summer, he said.
“We’re continuing to make improvements as we go,” Jesenovec said.
