Corey Follick receives a congratulatory handshake from Mayor Tom Franz after being sworn-in as the city of Englewood’s new director (chief) of police.
Photos Ron Nunnari | Register-Herald
Retired Police Chief Mark Brownfield displays the large, framed certificate of appreciation he received from the city in recognition of his dedicated service to the community.
ENGLEWOOD — Corey M. Follick was sworn-in Friday at 10 a.m. as the city of Englewood’s new director (chief) of police in front of an audience of family, friends, city staff, community members and officers from Englewood, and the neighboring cities of Clayton and Union.
Mayor Tom Franz administered the oath of office for the ceremony held in the council chambers at the Englewood Government Center, 333 W. National Rd.
Franz shared a humorous story prior to the ceremony. After retiring from Miami Valley Hospital, he served as a substitute teacher for Northmont City Schools. One day he was assigned to a kindergarten class. Follick was there to fingerprint the students as part of a safety program.
After telling the kids what they were supposed to be working on, Franz walked around to find every student was doing something other than their assignment. Follick teased Franz for the rest of the day about losing control of the class.
“Hopefully I can pay him back one of these days,” Franz said.
After the swearing-in, Follick addressed the audience.
“First of all, thank you to everyone that has come out today to support this. I appreciate the showing,” Follick said.
He recognized his parents, John and Renee Follick, older brother Chad, who is fire chief in Vandalia and younger brother Andrew, who is a fire battalion chief in Clayton, and his partner Dave.
“This is a huge day for me. I’m very excited about the opportunity,” Follick stated. “I want to thank Mr. (Eric) Smith, the city manager for instilling his confidence and trust in me to take the department on moving forward. Appreciate all the guys and gals from the police department that are here, especially the retirees that came back.”
Follick stated that after 28 years with the department he still loves his job.
“We have a great department, and I am looking forward to some movement in our department, some changes in personnel and us moving forward and improving what we already do as a great job for the community. We are going to do even more in the years to come,” Follick said.
He stated that the highlight of his career was the nine years he spent as the department’s first School Resource Officer (SRO) with Northmont City Schools.
He began his career with the city in 1995 as part-time public safety dispatcher while attending Bowling Green State University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Education. After graduation he attended the basic police academy at Sinclair Community College, which he completed in December 1999.
Follick also earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Dayton.
He was appointed as part-time officer in January 2000 and transitioned to full-time status in May 2003 after working for the cities of Vandalia and Mason in the parks and recreation field.
In addition to road patrol, Follick has also served as accreditation manager, training coordinator, crime prevention, field training officer, and as a shift supervisor.
He served as SRO from 2006 until January 2015 when he was promoted to sergeant. For the last eight and a half years he supervised the third shift road patrol operations while managing the department’s property room, training functions, scheduling, public relations / social media, and policy compliance.
Follick replaces Mark Brownfield, who served as the city’s longest tenured police chief at 24 years and worked 37 years for Englewood as a police officer as well personnel director and finance director and a brief stint as acting city manager.
Brownfield retired June 30.
“I’m very appreciative of the outpouring of visits I’ve had over the last couple of weeks, and that’s why I didn’t want a big event. I really prefer the one-on-one conversations I get because at big events I’m not going to get to talk to everybody,” Brownfield said.
“I really appreciate it, especially with members of other departments here today and that is also a sign that this community works together as a unit, so very-very much appreciate it,” Brownfield add. “I am going to miss you all. It was just time to step away from the police side. Corey is going to do an excellent job, and as I’ve told many people, he will be better than me. We have the best police department around with the personnel that we have.”
Brownfield was elected as a Clay Township trustee but stepped down after recently being appointed as the township’s fiscal officer.
Reach Ron Nunnari at [email protected].
