SLEVIN RESIGNS AS FREEMAN CHIEF OF POLICE

Head of department for less than a year calls departure ‘unfortunate’

Yet another chief of police with the city of Freeman — this time Jonathan “Jay” Slevin — has resigned after less than a year as head of the department.

The Freeman City Council accepted Slevin’s resignation, effective June 3, at its regular second meeting of the month Tuesday, May 21; the action came after 32 minutes in executive session.

The council also voted to begin advertising for a second police officer — not a chief — to work alongside Baron Nankival, who joined the force last August and is just wrapping up his time at the police academy.

Slevin’s resignation is the fifth for a local police chief since late 2013 when Eric Seitz — after being suspended by the city of Freeman for illegally obtaining controlled substances and pleading guilty to the Class 1 misdemeanor — stepped down.

Since then, the role of chief of police in Freeman has been filled by Richard “Casey” Cummings, Kirk McCormick, Scott Brewer and, most recently, Slevin.

“I loved working in Freeman,” Slevin told the Courier. “It’s unfortunate I had to leave when I did, but I had to do what was best for me and my family.”

Slevin, who has taken a job as an officer with the Lennox Police Department and will start next week, began working for the city of Freeman as an on-call officer in November of 2013. He was hired as a regular officer in 2014 and was named police chief in July of 2023.