HIGHLAND HILLS, Ohio (WOIO) – A Northeast Ohio village has sworn in a police officer who spent 18 months and faced more than 150 job rejections before earning his badge, becoming Ohio’s first deaf police officer in the process.
Officer Carl DeForest is one of only seven Deaf officers in the entire country. He is also the first deaf cadet to graduate from the Cleveland Heights Police Academy and the first Black Deaf officer in the nation.
Officer DeForest, who grew up in Beachwood, said his interest in law enforcement began in elementary school when a teacher brought a police canine into class…