Thursday, April 20, 2017
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Video
Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe discusses the changes he's making in the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force, one of the county's top drug-related law enforcement agencies.
Jeff Orr, longtime commander of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force and a captain at the sheriff’s office is retiring from both positions effective May 1.
His replacement is Howland Police Detective Tony Villanueva, Sheriff Paul Monroe announced Wednesday.
TAG, which is about 25 years old, is one of the top drug-enforcement agencies in the county.
Monroe said he made the change because of a “difference in philosophies” between him and Orr “and the direction we want our drug unit to head. Jeff Orr has been a positive long-standing member of our office and has done an outstanding job during his tenure here,” Monroe said.
“We are going to step up our efforts,” Monroe said. ”We have been looking at what’s going on with drug units across the state, and basically what we’re doing is failing, so we’re going to go in a different direction.
VIDEO: TRUMBULL SHERIFF DISCUSSES CHANGES
“We are going to attack street-level drug dealers, right up to major suppliers in our county,” Monroe said.
He said TAG will be working with the Warren Street Crimes Unit, Niles police and other law-enforcement agencies.
He asks that residents contact TAG with information on drug dealing on the TAG anonymous tip line at 330-675-7890.
“If you see something, say something. If you believe there’s a drug house in your neighborhood, call us,” Monroe said.
Monroe said he didn’t want to get into specific philosophical differences between he and Orr, but he said TAG would spend less time on drug-treatment issues because that is an area best left to treatment professionals.
“When you look at what [TAG] is designed to do is to enforce the drug laws in the state of Ohio in our county and Ashtabula County, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” he said.
Monroe said when government officials talk about supplying resources to address the heroin epidemic, the extra dollars go to a variety of interventions but rarely to law enforcement.
“I’ve heard over and over again we can’t arrest our way out of it,” Monroe said. “Well, we’re going to try.”
He said Villanueva worked under Orr at TAG. “He’s young, he’s aggressive, and he’s the kind of guy who will lead from the front,” Monroe said of Villanueva. He’s been a Howland detective nine years and spent three years with the McDonald Police Department.
Orr has spent 33 years in law enforcement, beginning his career with the sheriff’s office in 1995. He became head of the drug task force in 1997, he said.
Monroe said TAG will continue to carry out investigations into overdose deaths as it has in recent years, and TAG will be the clearinghouse where such information from Trumbull County will go. TAG will issue a protocol for law-enforcement agencies to follow when investigating such cases, Monroe said.
A board consisting of the sheriffs, prosecutors and chief deputies of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties has the authority to appoint the TAG commander, Monroe said.
A meeting is planned for May 11, but Monroe said he doesn’t believe there will be any issue with Villanueva becoming the commander.