What 20 years on the job looks like for two of CWRU police’s first officers

When Case Western Reserve University Police Chief Paul Owens first began patrolling campus as an officer, the physical landscape looked vastly different than today. His tenure began just after the Village at 115th was completed—years before campus staples such as the Tinkham Veale University Center, Maltz Performing Arts Center and Sears think[box] took shape. As new buildings have sprung up in the past 20 years, the department has experienced its own evolution. 

Earlier this month, the CWRU Police Department in the Division of Public Safety marked its 20th anniversary. At the same time, it honored its two longest-tenured officers, Owens and K9 Handler Officer Jimiyu Edwards, who were both among the first officers on the force.

Before becoming officers, both Owens and Edwards were security guards on campus. They were tapped to play a role in the department’s founding and sent to the police academy alongside a handful of colleagues. Upon graduation from the academy, they were sworn in as CWRU officers.

“It came from pretty much nothing—from security to a police department with all these young, new officers, to what we have now,” Edwards said. “It's amazing to be a part of that and to say I was there at the beginning.”

As the department has expanded, so too have Owens’ and Edwards’ responsibilities. 

Edwards was instrumental in establishing the K9 unit at CWRU. In 2023, after years of Edwards’ urging, the university swore in K9 Spartie, the first of the department’s K9 unit. With Edwards as his handler, K9 Spartie is trained in explosive detection. Before large campus and nearby events, K9 Spartie often sweeps buildings to ensure guests are safe.

Since then, K9 Maverick (with handler Owens) and K9 Athena (with Lead Crisis Response Clinician Gwendolyn Austin) have joined the team to provide therapeutic comfort—and smiles—to members of the community. 

During his tenure, Edwards has received special weapons and tactics (SWAT) training and also has become a certification instructor for policing equipment, such as pepper spray and handcuffs.

Owens now leads the department. When he was sworn in as an officer, he set a goal of eventually becoming a department chief, whether at CWRU or elsewhere. 

“I was fortunate enough to get it here,” he said. “Seeing people grow is what gives me the smile on my face at the end of the day.”

Even when that takes his officers to leadership positions in other departments, Owens calls it “the best feeling in the world” to see them go on to achieve greater things; he described the feeling as similar to when his three children succeed.

Some of his personal career highlights include working alongside the Secret Service during the 2020 Presidential Debate at the Health Education Campus and supporting on-campus filming of the Russo brothers’ Cherry in 2019.

What’s kept Owens and Edwards here all these years? The people and environment at CWRU.

The team that’s formed over the past 20 years has been a big part of it, too.

“We always say it's like a family atmosphere, which I truly believe it is. We’re able to be there for each other, and in this line of work, it is critical,” Owens said.

A growing role on campus

Officers at CWRU play highly visible duties in emergency response, crime prevention and response, self-defense and active aggressor-response trainings, traffic control, event security and more. But in the past 20 years, the department and its role on campus have grown significantly. 

Members of the CWRU PD.

In addition to investigating and responding to crimes that occur within the police department’s jurisdiction, in more recent years, the department has placed a greater emphasis on improving its response to mental health and survivor-focused support, including the initiation of:

• The Outreach, Assessment, Resources and Response team, which works closely with University Health and Counseling Services; and
• The Sexual Assault Response Team, which includes a multi-disciplinary group of professionals to provide survivor-centered care.

Owens and his team also have adopted several programs that aim to bridge relationships between officers and the CWRU and local communities. In 2025, the department launched its own Safety Town program geared toward incoming kindergarteners in the community, educating them on various safety topics. 

The K9s also have enhanced the department’s community engagement efforts, often giving people an easy conversation starter with the handlers. Owens estimates he has 10 times as many people come up to speak with him since K9 Maverick joined him.

Those interactions help drive the community-centered approach to policing at CWRU.

“We take extra pride and that extra step, making sure people know that we care about them,” said Owens. “Obviously, there's a time and place we have to deal with police work, but the majority of our job is to truly make sure the person we are helping that day feels like they were helped in a caring way.”