History

BCI becomes part of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and gains more responsibilities.

BCI establishes a Northeast Ohio office at Kent State University.

BCI adds a Narcotics Unit and opens a Northwest Ohio office in Perrysburg.

The Northeast Ohio office moves to Richfield and the Northwest Ohio lab to Fremont.

BCI is reorganized into five divisions: Identification, Laboratory, Investigations, Administration and Data Systems. As part of the updates, the bureau begins computerizing criminal histories and establishes an Organized Crime Bureau, which later becomes Special Investigations.

BCI forms an Intelligence Unit akin to today’s Criminal Intelligence Unit.

A tornado shears off a room at the Fremont location.

BCI begins marijuana eradication.

• BCI establishes an Environmental Enforcement Unit to assist the Ohio EPA, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, local law enforcement and other authorities in investigating criminal environmental activity.
• The Laboratory Division purchases its first Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer, used to identify drugs.

BCI agents compile a report on organized crime that leads to the establishment of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission.

BCI puts its first narcotics K-9 dog into service.

BCI establishes a Financial Investigations Unit.

Ohio begins mandating background checks for certain occupations, including insurance agents and people who works with children and the elderly. The new law significantly increases how many background checks the Identification Division completes each year.

Ohio establishes an Automated Fingerprint Identification System, enabling the computerization of criminal fingerprint cards.

• BCI opens a regional office in Bowling Green.
• BCI forms the Aviation Unit, which boasted three OH-58 helicopters acquired through the U.S. Department of Defense. The unit focused on assisting in marijuana eradication through aerial searches, photography and surveillance.

• Ohio passes Megan’s Law, which requires the classification of sex offenders and designates BCI as the agency responsible for maintaining the data.
• Ohio requires that DNA be collected from all violent offenders.
• BCI implements DRUGFIRE, a high-tech method of linking bullets, cartridge cases and weapons from serial shootings.

• AFIS begins accepting electronic criminal fingerprint transactions via Livescan, allowing for the rapid identification of suspects.
• BCI establishes a Cyber Crimes Unit.

• BCI provides DNA analysis for the first time.
• The introduction of Civilian AFIS allows BCI to electronically search fingerprint files for criminal records associated with civilians. Through a new WebCheck background check system, individuals can submit fingerprints at locations throughout Ohio.
• The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accredits BCI for the first time, putting the bureau among an elite 4% of law enforcement agencies nationwide and among only five accredited state crime labs.
• BCI opens a regional office in Youngstown.

BCI headquarters move into a new state-of-the-art building in London. The 122,000-square-foot facility, three times the size of the former facility, includes an advanced forensic laboratory that occupies more than half the building.

Ohio joins the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), an FBI-supported DNA database, and gets its first hit when DNA from a Warren County rape case is entered into the database and matches to an offender previously convicted of aggravated burglary.

The Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCUS) is established to provide statewide radio technology. Reliable two-way radio communication now linked the state of Ohio, local law enforcement and numerous administrative agencies.

BCI opens a regional office in Richfield, the dedication of which is halted as those gathered learn that airplanes have struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

• BCI becomes the first state agency to successfully submit flat images of civilian fingerprint transactions to the FBI for civilian background checks via the National WebCheck system.
• The Laboratory Division earns its first national accreditation from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.

BCI launches the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, an online platform and network for law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

• BCI establishes a Clandestine Drug Lab Unit.
• Palm prints are added to Ohio AFIS.

A new Ohio law requires DNA collection from all felony offenders, including for nonviolent offenders. The importance was proved the next year when DNA from a man convicted of a felony for not paying child support solved a 12-year-old cold case. Ohio State student Stephanie Hummer had been kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1994.

• BCI introduces Rapback (Retained Applicant Fingerprint Database), which enables electronic monitoring of selected background-check enrollees — such as teachers and school bus drivers — in the civilian database.
• The FBI selects Ohio and three other states to pilot a Rapid ID system, allowing agencies to transmit biometric information to be checked against national databases.

• BCI introduces robotics to speed up DNA casework.
• Ohio submits the first Rapid ID transaction to the FBI.

• BCI opens a regional office in Athens to enhance polygraph and evidence collection services in Southeast Ohio.
• Ohio law begins to require any person charged with a felony to submit a DNA sample for inclusion in CODIS, the DNA database used in Ohio.

BCI opens a regional office in Cambridge.

BCI opens a state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot center at Bowling Green State University, one of a select few crime labs located on a college campus.

• Familial DNA testing is used for the first time; as a result, Justin A. Christian is identified as the perpetrator of the abduction and sexual assault of a 6-year-old Cleveland girl and the later attempted abduction of a 10-year-old Elyria girl. Christian pleads guilty and is sentenced to 35 years in prison.
• The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board and the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) merge, marking the first year that BCI’s lab is accredited by ANAB, today’s premier accrediting agency.

BCI opens a drug testing lab in Springfield.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Center for the Future of Forensic Science hosts a grand opening at Bowling Green State University.

• BCI implements quantitative analysis of marijuana to distinguish the illegal drug from newly legalized cannabis.
• The Cold Case and Special Victims units are formed.
• In order to ensure fair investigations in the eyes of the public, BCI agrees to investigate all officer-involved critical incidents for the State Highway Patrol, Columbus Division of Police and many more law enforcement agencies throughout Ohio.