Criminal Justice Update 

The Attorney General’s Office has expanded Ohio’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to include nearly 600,000 palm prints, and it’s preparing to connect it with the FBI’s new national database that’s 10 times that size — and growing.

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s three laboratories have earned ASCLD/LAB-International  accreditation from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.

Among the 250 people attending a recent Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy course on school shootings were about 150 teachers, administrators, cooks, bus drivers, and custodians from Amanda Clearcreek Local Schools. There, too, were six members of the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, which provides law enforcement services to the district.

It is crucial that Ohio sexual assault victims have access to adequate victim services.
 
Thankfully, victim services have changed dramatically since I was a county prosecutor in the 1970s, when crime victims were lucky if their “services” included an ambulance or cruiser. Today, my office provides resources for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, identity theft, patient abuse and neglect, and many other crimes. We also administer grants that fund nearly 300 victim service programs across Ohio.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bailey v. United States clarifies that law enforcement officers’ ability to detain a home’s recent occupant during a search depends largely on the distance the occupant is from the residence.