On the Job 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is awarding more than $2.7 million in grant money to law enforcement agencies that present drug-prevention programs at Ohio’s public schools.

When parents suffer from addiction, they don’t suffer alone. Their children become innocent victims traumatized by living in chaos. As the opioid epidemic has taken hold in Ohio, more children have been put at risk by parental addiction. Increasingly, those children have been entering the child welfare system, including foster care.

Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Brian Shul, who overcame life-threatening injuries to become the pilot of the fastest plane in history, will be the keynote speaker at the Ohio Attorney General’s 2017 Law Enforcement Conference.
 

A person doesn’t have to be an opioid abuser to be injured or killed by the drug. Children and first responders are among those at risk of injury or death from accidental exposure.

During a news conference in Strongsville, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced on Sept. 6 that 40 law enforcement departments and their partners will receive $3 million in grants to be used to replicate or expand partnership programs that address the opioid epidemic.

A detective who works to bridge the gap between children’s services and law enforcement was recognized with the first Special Courage Award during the awards ceremony of the 2017 Two Days in May Conference on Victim Assistance. 

Gina DeJesus, who was abducted and held captive with two other girls for more than nine years in Cleveland,  urged the attendees of the May 20 in Reynoldsburg for National Missing Children’s Day to be more observant and ask more questions about things they see going on around them.

Since the passage of House Bill 366 in 2014, hospice providers have been required to request that any opioids remaining after a patient’s treatment or death be turned over to hospice by the family for disposal. (The disposal occurs at the patient’s home and is witnessed.)

About 120 advocates gathered at the 2017 Two Days in May Conference on Victim Assistance to brainstorm about the crime of child abuse and ways to work together on new methods of prevention, intervention, and accountability.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) will soon be providing a new type of DNA collection kit to law enforcement agencies. The updated Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) kits, which are less bulky and use a preservative paper, will be mailed out as agencies request more DNA collection kits.