The sheriff position had been a revolving door before Pretel took over in 2023. County councilmembers have praised his work, but have also urged him to cut costs.
CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Pretel was sworn in as sheriff for his newest four-year term Monday, as a team of his deputies assisted with traffic and security in Washington, D.C. during certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
The sheriff’s department is one of many that answered the call for assistance during the event, which came four years after a mob of people stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to block certification of current President Joe Biden’s win over Trump. Pretel says they decided before Election Day to also send more than 20 deputies to assist with the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, with their duties mostly involving traffic control and security.
“Any time you have an event that’s so high-profile, the threat is real,” Pretel said Monday. “There are people across the country who wish they could support and participate in such an event and they don’t. These deputies are there to help ensure democracy goes flawlessly when the change takes place. That’s important to them.”
Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne administered the oath of office to Pretel at the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial. Pretel has held the office since July 2023, taking over on a full-time basis more than a year after Sheriff Christopher Viland stepped down after only 14 months on the job. The position has been a revolving door, with Pretel being the ninth different man to hold it (including three interims) since a 2010 charter changed it from an elected position to an appointed one.
“I always say the ship is three degrees off center,” Pretel said during the ceremony. “Well, we’re centering that ship.”
He says he looks forward to the county jail’s controversial move to Garfield Heights, where officials are preparing to build a campus to hold and serve those in custody. The project is expected to break ground sometime this year, though no date has been set.
“Central Services Campus is absolutely something I’m looking forward to in this term,” Pretel said.
“We’re in a good place with the jail. We’ve made more progress in two years than anywhere before,” Ronayne told 3News in an interview. “We want to, as we build out the Central Services Campus in Garfield, not just build a better jail, but build a better justice system, making sure people have services inbound and outbound on what they need to return to (the) community better than they came in.”
In recent months, county councilmembers have praised Pretel’s work, but they have also urged him to cut costs. In November, 3News reported the department was $12 million over budget. Some, including County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, questioned why he created a safety patrol for downtown Cleveland.
“Finances are always never enough,” Pretel told us when asked about it. “Its (the Downtown Safety Patrol’s) impact on the budget and on the staffing of the remainder of the department is practically insignificant.”
Pretel defended the team assigned to assist with crime downtown, pointing back to the weeks before his initial swearing in in 2023.
“Within the previous few weeks, there had been 23 felonious assault shootings within two blocks of the Justice Center — within two blocks of the justice center. There is an absolute need to respond to violent crime,” he emphasized. “The Downtown Safety Patrol was created from deputies not from field operations, certainly not from units that are doing the bulk of the work.”
“Everywhere we go, there’s a security threat, so aligning for the future a public safety team that meets today’s demands is what we’re doing,” Ronayne said of Pretel’s reappointment. “It’s a work in progress, though, budgetarily speaking.”
