'Even though I'm retired, I'm not done:' Lorain Police Humane Officer Rick Broz retires after 30 years with department

LORAIN — Humane Officer Rick "Doc" Broz's retirement may have been the best kept secret in the city. Broz submitted the paperwork about six months ago, but only made it publicly known after the end of his shift Tuesday evening, after roughly 30 years with the department. But that won't be the last the city sees of the veteran cop known to help any furry or feathered friend to cross his path. "I'm going to miss a lot of it," he said. "Catching the dogs, it's fun. I enjoy it. When I deal with I don't want to say an aggressive dog, but a dog that is growling at me and all that, and then I finally win it over, it's an adrenaline high. It's one of those feelings you really can't explain." Broz retired initially in 2018, but was reinstated by the city's Civil Service Commission. He decided to leave after hitting the roughly 30-year-mark due to severe pain in his back caused by arthritis in his lower right side and spine — aggravated by the 12-hour shifts spent driving in a cruiser. After all those years, and all the dogs caught and reunited with their owners, deer freed from soccer nets, possums' and raccoons' heads freed from tin cans, and even small alligators nabbed, he said if someone 35 years ago had told him he'd become a cop, "I probably would've slapped them." "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans," he joked. Growing up in the International City, Broz served six years as a Navy corpsman — bouncing between the East and West coasts — before returning home to work as a paramedic out of St. Joseph Hospital. "I was in the military for six years — cops around military bases are always bad," he said. "They pick on the military guys, you really get a bad taste in your mouth to a policeman when you're in the military. So when I got out of the service and I became a paramedic I worked for St. Joe's hospital ambulance service. And I started working along with the policemen of Lorain and I saw a whole different side of law enforcement. Then one of my buddies who I worked with, who became a policeman, said, 'Hey there's a test coming up.' I took it, and I got hired." Starting with Lorain police in 1990, Broz worked in a city grappling with drugs and gangs, more so than it is today. It's not the same as the city his father grew up in, remembering stories of a bustling downtown during its heyday, but it's on an upswing, he said. Over the years, he turned down offers for a detective shield, preferring to stay on the street. He served on the city's SWAT team; helped with Building, Housing and Planning inspections, community relations and was a field training officer. But the job he is best known for, humane officer, started after the city laid off its dog catcher in 2009 thanks to budget constraints during the Great Recession. "Over the next few years, our dog problem got out of control. And because a lot of people don't understand how to deal with dogs, our shootings of dogs by police got out of control," he said. "... The chief was frustrated with it, the other supervisors were frustrated with it, the city was frustrated with it. It was just bad. It's not a good thing." He'd been volunteering a vast majority of his time at Friendship Animal Protective League, picking up techniques to handle dogs. His shift supervisor, Lt. Dan Reinhardt, suggested Broz write a letter to then-police Chief Cel Rivera suggesting Broz would take over the position of dealing with animal calls in the city. Expecting to hear little back, he was surprised when it was approved within a week by the city administration. Starting in 2014, Broz officially took over as the officer on call for any and all animal complaints, from loose dogs to kittens in drain pipes. He usually posts the good stories on his Facebook page, but admits not every instance has a happy ending. He keeps those to himself, not wanting to be reminded of the animals suffering from abuse or neglect that couldn't be helped. "I see a lot of other police departments all over the country that are trying to do what I did here in Lorain," he said. "Maybe not specifically having a specific officer assigned to it, but they're training their officers to deal with dogs, they're picking up more, safely apprehending loose dogs and it's kind of good to see the attitude is changing." While Tuesday marked his last day as a paid humane officer, locals can still expect Broz to help animals however he can. When not with his own dog, Skeeter, or 18-year-old cats Missy and Spaz, he plans to start volunteering at the APL again — something that fell by the wayside as his job as a humane officer ate up any chances of taking time off. And he has one dog specifically he's determined to catch. "I've been chasing a dog for about two and a half weeks, and it's so afraid it'll come up close to eat, but then it takes off again," he explained. "So most dogs, if they see you feeding them, they'll start to develop a bond with you but for some reason, whatever this dog's history is, it'll come up, it'll see me put food in its bowl ... but it just won't bond. Something in this dog's life has made it terrified of people — I even tried to take Skeeter because he's normally very attractive to other dogs and I think this is a female, I'm really sure I haven't gotten a close enough look at it — but it ran from him. So even though I'm retired, I'm not done." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.