Ohio police would log certain warrants and access GPS location data

Law enforcement agencies would enter certain warrants in police databases. The rules cover warrants for tier-one offenses and warrants for people who leave detention while under community control or a residential sanction for a tier-one offense, or who are targeted violent offenders. Covered warrants include those for tier-one offenses and for people who leave detention in listed circumstances. A targeted violent offender must be under adult parole supervision and assessed as having higher risks of reoffending and committing a violent offense. The requesting agency must enter a covered warrant within 48 hours of receiving it and notify the local emergency call center within that time for warrants involving people who leave detention. It must remove an erroneous entry within 48 hours of finding the error, and remove an entry within 48 hours after the warrant is served, dismissed, or recalled.

The state would use one vendor to monitor people whose release includes GPS tracking. The provisions cover people released from a state prison under a pardon, parole, another authorized release, or transitional control, or placed on post-release control, when GPS monitoring is a condition. The rules cover people released from a state prison under a pardon, parole, another authorized release, or transitional control, and people on post-release control, when GPS monitoring is a release condition. The monitor must track allowed and restricted zones; it may also set a curfew and other reasonable restrictions. The vendor’s system must let local police access available location information without a warrant or subpoena, including information that may connect a person’s location to recent crime. Access must be available at all times. The monitoring and vendor rules would apply on and after the amendment’s effective date. If the state has not set monitoring system requirements by then, it must set them within a reasonable time.

Counties could seek state approval to take part in a prison-alternative program. The program applies to participating counties and certain people sentenced for fourth- or fifth-degree felonies to serve time in local facilities. Exceptions include specified violent or sex offenses, certain prior convictions, and required prison sentences. County commissioners and the administrative judge of the county’s common pleas court must agree to seek participation, and the state must approve the agreement. The state must prioritize counties that took part before; it may review an application from a new county only if the legislature has provided enough money. Counties must indicate whether they will participate before each state fiscal two-year period. An agreement may end only at the end of the two-year period in which the county decides to terminate it.