Akron has a new chief of public safety. Craig Morgan recently served as chief city prosecutor, where he worked closely with the police department. In his new role, Morgan will oversee all of the city's emergency services.
A career shift
Morgan has spent his entire career working for the city of Akron. As a law student at the University of Akron, he began working as a law clerk for the city. When he graduated, he was hired full time as a city prosecutor. He was promoted to police legal advisor in 2005, deputy chief prosecutor in 2010 and chief prosecutor in 2021.
He was interested in taking on the role of chief of public safety because of his experience working with the police department as a prosecutor, he said.
In addition to overseeing the police department, Morgan also manages the fire department and office of emergency management, as well as roles focusing on community violence intervention and prevention and public safety recruitment and retention.
"I'm a huge fan of planning and contingencies and preparing for critical incidents," he said.
This year, Morgan wants to expand and further develop the office of emergency management to ensure communication between all departments is running smoothly, he said.
It's been two years since the city last had a chief of public safety, Morgan said, and the new emergency management office and roles focused on public safety make coordination more important than ever.
"The traditional position only had police and fire, but we now do have emergency management," he said. "There is a public safety strategist. There is the public safety retention and recruitment specialist."
Staffing challenges
The biggest challenge facing public safety in the city is capacity, Morgan said.
"Our safety forces are out there doing amazing work in extremely stressful, rapidly developing situations," he said. "Making sure that they get that time they need because of what they see, they need that time to decompress."
The police department has long struggled to get recruitment numbers up to the department's budgeted amount. In January, the city a recruitment and retention specialist, Ayanna Ray, to focus on public safety and support career pathways to the police and fire departments.
"She's working both all the way upstream as far as you can go upstream with the recruitment process," Morgan said, "but also how do we increase or better the experience of being a safety forces personnel here with the city of Akron?"
Departments across the region have taken different approaches to staffing challenges, from paying police academy tuition to changing the length of shifts to increasing pay.
In Akron, the biggest investment will be in a new police station, Morgan said. After nearly two years of looking for a new home, the city announced in December that the police headquarters at the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center will be renovated.
"Something which is major in the sense of what it costs and the resources that go into it, but I think the long-term return, right?," Morgan said. "It's not something - well I think you'll see it in the immediate - but just what you get that return on investment in the decades ahead."
Increasing public trust
Morgan is also tasked with promoting community-oriented policing strategies and building relationships with residents, which may be a challenge as some communities' trust in the city's police department is continuing to wane.
The city is currently undergoing a comprehensive review of the police department's use-of-force policy, which leaders and community members have called for in the wake of several fatal police shootings in recent years, including the shooting deaths of 15 year old Jazmir Tucker in 2024 and 25 year old Jayland Walker in 2022, who were both Black.
"Everything that they laid the foundation for really is going to bare fruit this year," Morgan said.
The city hopes to have final policy recommendations in the coming months.
