Fremont Police chief apologizes after officer arrests wrong man

FREMONT, Ohio (WTVG) - Fremont’s police chief apologized to the community after business owner Darnell McCloud was wrongfully arrested on a drug trafficking warrant.

“I’m of course, disappointed. We didn’t live up to the standards that our community expect us too,” said Chief Derek Wensinger “We can’t do this alone. We need community support with community support, we are exponentially better at doing our job as police officers. We have been talking amongst ourselves on ways we can do better. it’s it’s not just with interactions like this. There’s other things that we can do better,” said the chief.

He said there is training in place and procedures officers should follow when arresting someone on a warrant.

“How long does it take What’s your birthday? What are the last four numbers or your Social Security number? What’s your home address? What’s the address and your license? I’m just saying that out loud here. There are some protocols that we are talking about putting in place for every time even those times that officers don’t think they need it,” said Chief Wensinger.

Officer Chevy Farmer was given a three-day suspension without pay for failing to confirm the identity of the person he arrested.

Darnell McCloud spent nearly half an hour at the jail.

The police chief is reviewing past warrant arrests.

“This is not a chronic issue. Part of the review that we have done internally, as we are just looking back through our records to make sure that we did good jobs and the other warrants we executed,” said Chief Wensinger.

He’s reminding his officers.

“When we do these jobs all of them, we need to do them well and we need to live up to the expectations, our community, and the rules that we have as a police department,” said the chief.

Officer Farmer was also ordered to take additional training in serving arrest warrants upon return from his suspension.

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