By Bud Bakos

The volatile social history of the Midwest manifests itself in the history of the City of Akron, notable through the history of the Akron Police and Law Enforcement. From the Riot of 1900 which destroyed the building which had been used to house Akron’s police force, to the bustling twenty four-hour-a-day town that Akron had become during the industrial and rubber surge of the early twentieth century, law enforcement was required to keep up with the growth of the rest of the city. In 1966 this became a reality as the Akron Police moved into the new Municipal building at 217 S. High, on the site of the old Summit County Sheriff’s Office and Summit County Jail. The new larger building allowed for the increase in the size of the Akron PD from 322 officers to 524. Designed by Good & Wagner in Italian Renaissance Revival style, the Municipal building paired well with the other building in the downtown area. It was known as the City-County Safety Building until 1992 when it was renamed the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center, in honor of former Municipal Court judge Harold Stubbs, who was also Akron’s first black law director.