Andrew Kory named Police Chief; new officers hired

Andrew Kory was sworn in as Police Chief at the City Council meeting September 14. Kory has been with the department since 2015. He was promoted to Sergeant in 2018 and later that year was assigned to the detective bureau.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Youngstown State University. The North Ridgeville native entered the police academy at Lorain County Community College, graduating in 2013. He served on the Summa Health Care and Cedar Point police departments concurrently for two years before joining SLPD.

Kory said his immediate goals were to focus on community programs. He will institute a Coffee with the Chief program while maintaining the city’s popular Safety Town program and reinstituting Shop with a Cop, which pairs local kids and officers at the holidays to purchase gifts for themselves and their families; and No Shave November, a cancer awareness effort.

He is also focused on providing more training for officers in the department and exploring ways to improve communication with youth.

Mayor Dennis Bring said he is looking forward to building a partnership with Kory. “I want to see some of his ideas implemented including appropriate manpower, training and equipment so he is successful as chief and our community benefits.

“He’s very intelligent and I believe he is going to be fun to work with because he’s willing to listen to others’ ideas. That’s a breath of fresh air.

Bring continued, “Andrew is community-oriented. We want the public to see our police as a very good department. We want the neighboring police agencies to know there is open commmunication and more cooperation with them since mutual aid is so important and I think our school district will benefit from having this new administration in place as well.”

Kory is married and has two young children.

At the same meeting, Council approved the hiring of Joshua McCoy as full-time police officer and Robert Perkins as part-time officer.

McCoy is a ten year veteran of Cleveland Police Department while Perkins currently works part-time for Sheffield Village Police Department and is retired from the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office. Kory said, “We’re pleased to have them joining us and expect great things from both of them.”