COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed into law a measure that creates the state’s first formal “escaped convict alert” program, allowing law enforcement to push urgent notifications to cellphones, TV and radio stations, highway signs and other platforms when someone convicted of or charged with a felony escapes from a secure jail, prison or workhouse.
The new law, codified as Ohio Revised Code Section 5502.54 and effective immediately, works like this:
- Who qualifies for an alert: The escapee must have been convicted of a felony, pleaded guilty to a felony, or been formally indicted or charged with a felony. Misdemeanor offenders and people who walk away from halfway houses or community-based correctional facilities do not trigger the alert.
- Who can activate it: Any Ohio law enforcement agency — local police, sheriff’s office, or state highway patrol — that receives official notice of the escape under existing reporting statutes (ORC 341.011 for county jails, 753.19 for municipal jails, or 5120.14 for state prisons) can turn on the alert for the surrounding area or the broader region.
- How the public will see it: Once activated, the alert can be disseminated through the same infrastructure used for Amber Alerts and severe weather warnings: Wireless Emergency Alerts (the loud tone and pop-up message that appears on nearly all modern cellphones), television and radio crawls and interruptions, digital highway message boards, and apps or social media tied to the state’s alert system.
- Geographic reach: Unlike Amber Alerts, which are often regional or statewide, escaped convict alerts can be limited to the immediate vicinity of the escape or expanded across a larger region, depending on the threat assessment.
- Liability protection: Broadcasters, cable systems and their employees are completely shielded from lawsuits for airing the alert, failing to air it, or any damages that might result from the broadcast — the same legal immunity already given for Amber Alerts and weather alerts.
- No takeover of the federal Emergency Alert System: The law explicitly prohibits using the national EAS (the system that can override all TV and radio stations) unless federal law separately allows it.
- Local flexibility preserved: Cities, counties or regions that already have their own escapee alert protocols (some larger counties do) can keep using them even if their criteria differ from the new state standard.
Supporters, including the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, said the alerts will give law enforcement a critical head start in recapturing violent offenders. In recent years Ohio has seen several high-profile escapes, including convicted murderers who cut through cell walls or climbed fences, sometimes remaining at large for hours or days.
“This is about public safety, plain and simple,” said Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, one of the bill’s sponsors and a former sheriff’s deputy. “When a murderer or rapist escapes, seconds matter. This gives us the same tools we already use for missing children, but for the people who pose the greatest danger to the public.”…