The Union County Sheriff’s Office has contracted with Millcreek and Jerome Townships to provide additional public safety services by Public Safety Officers (PSOs). A PSO is a member of the Patrol Division of the Union County Sheriff’s Office. PSOs are specially cross-trained as fire fighters and emergency medical technicians.

Experience indicates that in many cases a law enforcement officer will arrive on the scene of a fire or a medical emergency prior to Fire and EMS (Emergency Medical Service) units. PSOs complement the current fire and EMS structure currently in place in Millcreek and Jerome Townships. Each PSO is a certified emergency medical technician and fire fighter. When not responding to emergencies, PSOs perform a variety of law enforcement functions such as traffic enforcement, civil paper service, business checks, community policing, and investigating reports of criminal activity.



These law enforcement positions were originally created with the help of grant funding from the Federal Government. The first PSO was assigned to Millcreek Township in 1998, the second in 1999, and the third in 2001. Millcreek and Jerome Townships formed a Public Safety District in 1999 and currently, all three PSO’s patrol and respond to emergencies in both townships. The PSO coverage is in addition to regular patrol deputies that the Sheriff’s Office has on duty.

The PSO program is a joint public safety initiative between the Millcreek and Jerome Township Trustees, the Union County Commissioners, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office. The townships are responsible for the salary and benefits of the PSO’s and the Commissioners and Sheriff are responsible for all equipment, training, fuel, maintenance, supervision, and human resource matters. The partnership that has developed between the Townships, the County, and the community is very positive and has benefited the citizens in both Townships extensively.

In November of 2007 the residents of Millcreek Township approved a levy for a period of five (5) years for the purpose of maintaining the PSO program. As mentioned above this program is shared with Jerome Township. Based on area, population and other factor a cost sharing agreement was arrange where Jerome Township has approximately 75% of the service of the Deputies and pays the corresponding amount. Millcreek has the PSO Deputies 25% of the time and pays the corresponding amount .