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Ohio's New Violent Offender Database Isn't Open to Public

The law exempts the information from public records requests, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be kept from the public. So Ohio law enforcement officials are working out how they will handle questions of access.

(TNS) — Butler County, Ohio, officials say a new statewide violent offender registry will eventually be a useful tool for law enforcement, but it would be even more helpful if the information were open to the public like the sex offender database.

The database, which went live last month, will include those convicted of aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and abduction.

The Violent Offender Database registry is available to law enforcement, but not to the public online, though residents can visit their sheriff’s office to get some information on offenders.

Steve Irwin, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, said the law does not allow for the information to be public. Once offenders leave prison, they must register and give their name, address, vehicle and other information.

He said that doesn’t mean the information will always be shielded.

“The way the law was written, it is written as a tool for law enforcement,” Irwin said. “So the law expresses it is exempt from public records law. We are reviewing the law and seeing where and what of the information would be appropriate to make public.”

Some critics who testified during the bill passage process contended that such databases can create obstacles for people trying to re-enter society after serving their prison sentences.

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said he sees no difference between this type of registry and the sexual offenders database that is searchable by the public. Sexual predators must register with the county sheriff when they move in and move out.

“I’m a firm believer in public information especially if it involves public safety,” Gmoser said. “If somebody has committed a violent crime I think that the public ought to have an awareness of that, to the same extent that they are aware of a sex offender living in their neighborhood. I don’t see a whole lot of difference between sex violence and physical violence.”

He said if someone has violent tendencies, people living nearby have a right to know.

“If somebody has an explosive personality and is prone to violent assaults, I think the public ought to know about that,” the prosecutor said.

None of the first 22 registrants on the database are from this region. Butler County Sheriff’s Office Chief Tony Dwyer said it could be awhile before anyone from the county will be required to register, since the law is not retroactive.

“The law didn’t go retro so it’s going to take some time for the data to catch up, because it’s really just the high-end offenses, so anybody convicted of these offenses, they’re probably going to do some substantial time before this takes effect,” Dwyer said.

Having the information about released prisoners will be helpful, Dwyer said.

“Any tool that we have that we can search to identify people that committed similar crimes is not a bad thing,” he said. “So for me, some years down the road to be working on a case where there has been a homicide or something else similar, we’ll be able to search the database for people that have had similar connections in the past, in geographic areas it’s just an investigative tool, one of many. I don’t see it as per se game-changing but any data that we collect like that is useful to us.”

Proponents of the law signed in December by then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the registry may help stop situations like the one involving 20-year-old University of Toledo student Sierah Joughin. Joughin was abducted in July 2016 while riding a bicycle. Her body was found days later a few miles from her house, according to reports.

James D. Worley, convicted of killing Joughin, previously served time for abducting a woman in Lucas County. He lived near where Joughin disappeared, but Worley wasn’t on the sex offender registry.

The law was supported by the Buckeye Sheriff’s Association and now-Gov. Mike DeWine, who was Ohio’s attorney general.

DeWine previously estimated that the AG’s office could incorporate the system within the existing sex offender registry, costing about $350,000 to establish and “a subsequent annual cost of approximately $175,000, plus personnel costs.”

It costs around $180,000 annually for the Butler County Sheriff’s Office to handle the sex offender registry, but Dwyer said he doesn’t anticipate this registry to cost anywhere near that amount. The two people charged with overseeing the sex offender registry will handle this task too.

Those against the law included the Ohio Public Defender’s Office and the ACLU of Ohio.

The state public defender Timothy Young testified that making a failure to annually register a fifth-degree felony could make prison overcrowding worse.

A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Ohio on Tuesday said the law is “unnecessary.”

©2019 the Journal-News (Hamilton, Ohio). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.