COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio residents will soon receive mobile emergency alerts when felony offenders escape from correctional facilities.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 23, creating the “Escaped Convict Alert System,” on Dec. 1. The legislation passed the House in June and the Senate in October, with both votes being unanimous.
Under the incoming statute, law enforcement will be able to activate regional alerts in the “surrounding area” of a jail or prison when an inmate escapes. An incarcerated person must have been convicted of, indicted for or pleaded guilty to a felony offense in order to trigger an alert. Escapes from community-based correctional facilities, such as halfway houses, will be excluded from the system.
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The notifications will be disseminated through the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) infrastructure, a U.S. public safety system built into most modern cellphones that allows users to receive geographically-targeted messages. Local Amber Alerts and severe weather warnings, along with national emergencies, are all distributed through the WEA system…