Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer has a number of goals for 2024, including moving into the agency’s new office, opening a new training facility and earning accreditation.

Balzer said the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office is currently scheduled to move into the Byxbe Campus on state Route 521 on Jan. 22. Balzer said the move was supposed to take place in the fall of this year but was delayed.

“We’re this close,” he said, holding up his thumb and index finger nearly touching on Dec. 21. “We want to make sure it’s all ready, and any big project like this you expect various delays. We’re excited about that, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Balzer said an advantage of the new facility will be allowing the office’s various divisions to be together after being spread between several different buildings for many years.

“One of the things I’m most excited about is a lot of people (will be) together now,” he said. “Detectives can literally walk down the hallway for a briefing. Those connections are really important.”

Balzer said the office will also be renovating a former school building on County Home Road to open its basic peace officers training academy in February.

He added the central Ohio region has many good peace officer training academies, but they often place limits on how many people from any given agency can attend at a time, which can be challenging for an agency as large as the sheriff’s office.

“We’ve had difficulty in the past sometimes getting our folks into academies,” Balzer said. “We want to be able to make sure we always have a place to send our folks, and we want to start from the very beginning to get them used to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office way of doing things. We want to get our folks used to that culture of high expectations from the very beginning.”

Balzer said the location being a former school also makes it ideal to train on how to respond to an active shooter.

“God forbid we have one in Delaware County, but we’re going to be prepared,” he said. Balzer added the sheriff’s office will train not just with other law enforcement but also fire and EMS. “You need to have the emergency services folks to get in there and provide care. (After making the area safe) fire folks or EMS folks will go in with a law enforcement officer to protect them while they provide care even if the situation isn’t done.”

Balzer said he loves working in Delaware County for a variety of reasons, and the partnerships between the law enforcement agencies, fire departments and EMS is one of the best parts.

“It’s not just the law enforcement community, it’s the entire public safety community,” Balzer said. “We’re all going to work on this together.”

Balzer said this year he hopes to accomplish a goal shared by previous Sheriff Russell Martin; earning accreditation for the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office.

“We’ve been talking about it for awhile, and it’s happening,” Balzer said. He explained there will be a review process and an onsite inspection of the office and the Delaware County Jail in 2024. “This is all part of the plan, the reason Sheriff Martin wanted it and I want it is because … it holds us to the industry best standards. We tell people we’re the best sheriff’s office in Ohio, and in order to be that for our community, we have to hold ourselves to the highest standards.”

Balzer said he’s looking forward to the accreditation process and wants to get the health care at the jail accredited in the future as well.

“I think the citizens of Delaware County deserve and should have the best sheriff’s office possible and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

Balzer said the leading crime in the county remains thefts of all kinds, including vehicle thefts, theft from vehicles and identity theft.

“We’re trying to catch these folks, but if the community helps us, locks up their vehicles, keeps their valuables out of their car, that’ll really lead to a decrease in stolen vehicles,” he said.

Another issue remains scam callers pretending to be deputies from the sheriff’s office threatening people with arrest unless they give them gift cards. Balzer encourages residents to hang up, look up the actual sheriff’s office number and call.

“Reach out to us,” he said. “If you’ve got a question, call the sheriff’s office. We never call you and demand money. Look up the number (for the office) on your phone and call it.”

Balzer said violent crime remains low in the county.

“Delaware County is still a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” he said. “Other communities have a lot of violent crime, but we don’t have that. Certain things happen everywhere, but to a large extent, we are a very safe community.”

Balzer was appointed to the position in May and said he is still excited to be sheriff.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Balzer said, recounting that he’d stated this goal as far back as the early 1990s. “(Sheriff) Martin was not just a friend but a mentor. He set a high standard for the sheriff’s office. My goal is to not just meet that standard, I want to push it even further. We’ve got a great team at the sheriff’s office, and I want to continue to build that team to protect our community. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to serve.”

Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.