My name is Jason Arrington, and I am a lifelong resident of Cuyahoga Falls. I am honored to now raise my 14-year old daughter in the same special city I grew up in and share new memories here with her! Since my youth, growing up on 3rd Street, when I was a paperboy, I have loved The Falls and have always been proud to call this city my home. As a child here, I enjoyed riding my bike to the two Dairy Queens, the many Lawsons stores to buy Marvel Comics and Slush Puppies, and fishing in the river. Living so close to the Cuyahoga Falls Police station was the greatest thing in the world to me! I remember so many times the police would respond to calls and drive past my house with lights and sirens blaring. I would try and follow them on my bike, wanting to go with them to help them, feeling as though they were leaving me behind. I thought that being a police officer and helping people would be a dream job. Many times, I would walk to the station just to talk to and be with the police. They were always very professional to me and had a huge impact on my future!
I attended Bode Elementary School on Oakwood and was in the last 5th grade class when it closed, and we were then transferred to Bolich Middle School. Bode was a very special place for me with many positive childhood memories. Bolich was a tough school in the early 80's but it was there that I met the most amazing teacher in my educational life, Mrs. Greathouse (Mrs. G). I then attended Falls High where I made the Black Tiger football team as a freshman and was honored to play football with some very talented athletes, one of whom ended up playing in the NFL! While in high school, I worked at my grandparent’s restaurant here in The Falls, LADD'S DRIVE-IN on State Road as well as ACME-CLICK as a stock boy. I was a 1990 graduate and then attended The University of Akron, choosing criminal justice as my major. While enrolled at The University of Akron, I also attended the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy every evening and weekend in 1992 and graduated that December. I was then commissioned as an Auxiliary Reserve Police Officer in Stow, Ohio until March of 1994 when I then had the honor of being sworn in as a Summit County Deputy Sheriff.
As a deputy sheriff I started out as all deputies do, in the jail. After a few years I was then selected for the patrol division where I was very fortunate to learn from some outstanding supervisors and deputies. As a patrol deputy I was very involved with the communities I served and attended many city and township council meetings. We patrolled Coventry Township, the City of Green, Boston Township and Twinsburg Township. We covered a lot of ground and it was great to get to know our citizens and what was important to them. I also worked in the Community Policing Division, AMHA, Special Services, and I was also assigned to the Fugitive Task Force, Warrant Division with the United States Marshals Office. My later years I served as a court services deputy and was assigned as the Weekly Deputy in the Summit County Council meetings. I served 2-terms as an elected Fraternal Order of Police Trustee and FOP Ohio Labor Council Delegate. During that time, I was also my local FOP Union rep and served 3-terms on the contract committee. After completing 27 years in law enforcement, I retired in November 2021.
Now that I am retired, I feel that I can do more for The Falls other than just sit back and enjoy it. After serving Summit County for 27 years I am home now and want to serve our great city! We are going through a renaissance period and I want to help out as much as possible. I remember in 2020 while attending a graduation for medical students where a guest speaker from The Falls gave such an amazing inspirational speech! I walked up to him afterwards to shake his hand and compliment him. I also Facebook messaged him about how his words have inspired me to run for city council! Well, here I am now. I believe my life experiences, education, training and years of responding to calls for the public have prepared me to take my public service to another level.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Jason Arrington