Tim DelVecchio has worked in the business of criminal justice for 50 years. More than half this time was spent as a high ranking officer with the Ohio State Patrol, retiring as Commander of the Cleveland Metro Office in 2000. There was no time for grass to grow under Tim's feet before his security know-how was again put into action, this time at an international level. Tim was hired by the State Department to travel to Kosovo as part of the United Nations' first armed police mission anywhere in the world. Kosovo at the time was deemed "the most dangerous place on Earth," and according to Tim, it was. He stayed on with the State Department after Kosovo and spent the next decade involved in highly sensitive police work around the world. When he finally returned to the States, Ohio Homeland Security tapped his knowledge for the good of schools. Tim began working with school districts on establishing their emergency plans and crisis response. He now provides consulting services to the Ohio Schools Council and runs the OSC's School Safety Program. Tim is a partner in this work at Elyria City School District. "We want to develop a mindset and give people the skills to respond to an emergency," Tim said of his work in school safety. "In a catastrophic event, you won't rise the to the occasion, you'll sink to your lowest level of preparedness. That's why we want to always have people prepared to a degree so they can respond effectively."
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