Victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, and menacing who are trying to rebuild their lives can now start fresh and with more confidence that they can keep their address out of the public record.
The Safe at Home address-confidentiality program, created when House Bill 359 passed last year, allows victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and other crimes, as well as members of their household, to apply for a substitute address that they can use to shield their residence from public record.
To enroll, a victim must sign up through a certified application assistant. The phone numbers, emails, and addresses of the application assistants are listed by county on the Safe At Home website.
Once enrolled, participants can use the designated address assigned by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office in place of their actual address in public records. Any mail received by the Secretary of State’s Office for program participants is forwarded daily to the participants.
A workshop being offered at the Two Days in May conference will provide training and certify new application assistants for the program. More than 100 victim advocates have already been certified to help victims enroll.
According to Ohio Revised Code sections 109.57 (C) and 111.46 (A), the name, confidential address, and phone number of each program participant is transmitted to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for inclusion in the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG). Access to that information may only be granted to chiefs of police, village marshals, sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, or a designee of those individuals.
Those with access to that information in OHLEG are barred from disclosing it, except if necessary for law enforcement or another legitimate governmental purpose.
For more information about the program, visit
www.SafeAtHomeOhio.com.