On the Job 

In an effort to standardize the training of Ohio’s peace officers, Attorney General Mike DeWine asked the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission (OPOTC) to adopt a set of pre-certification standards for academies.

Peace officers and troopers are required to complete 11 hours of Continuing Professional Training (CPT) this year, up from four hours last year, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the requirements in October during the opening session of the Law Enforcement Conference. 

Blue Courage, a nationally recognized program containing workshops that cover topics such as police culture, resilience, and positive psychology, has been added to the basic and advanced training required of Ohio’s law enforcement officers. 

When I started my career as a Greene County assistant prosecuting attorney, heroin was a drug found in the back alleys of big cities. 

Efforts by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to fight the state’s heroin epidemic drew the attention of 60 Minutes, which put together a “Heroin in the Heartland” segment focusing on drug use in the suburbs of Columbus.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Heroin Unit, developed in 2013 to help law enforcement pursue high-level traffickers and to work with communities affected by the opiate epidemic, combines the talents of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC), the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), the Special Prosecutions Section and drug-abuse outreach specialists. 

A former heroin addict who spoke at the “Taking Back Our Communities” conference and resource fair in Mason, Ohio, said his recovery was a “journey of a million tiny steps.” 

When an Amber Alert is issued, the vast resources of law enforcement and community unite with a passion to save a missing child. 

Project LINK (Linking Individuals Not Known) — in which DNA samples from family members of missing people are compared to DNA samples from human remains in an attempt to find a match — is part sleuthing and part science.

The Consumer Protection Section helps resolve consumer issues, keeps track of consumer complaints and assists law enforcement on consumer-related investigations.