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Former lawmaker backs proposal to add escaped-inmate alerts to Ohio emergency alert system
Summary
Kevin Coughlin, a former state legislator who helped author Ohio's AMBER Alert, testified in support of a substitute House Bill 23 to permit emergency alerts for dangerous escaped inmates under defined standards to protect the system’s credibility.
Kevin Coughlin, a former state representative and state senator who helped enact Ohio’s AMBER Alert system, provided proponent testimony in support of Substitute House Bill 23, which would add dangerous escaped inmates to the state’s emergency information network.
Speaking to the Senate Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee, Coughlin said the AMBER/Emergency Alert system must retain credibility and be used sparingly: the bill sets standards so alerts would be issued only for inmates deemed dangerous to the public rather than for administrative failures such as processing errors. “I would absolutely say that the dangerous inmate that has escaped a jail is clearly a legitimate use for the emergency action system,” Coughlin said, provided standards in the bill are met.
Coughlin, who described his experience drafting Ohio’s AMBER Alert authorization in 2002–2003, said the system has been expanded in the past to cover missing children and adults and situations involving injuring or killing law enforcement officers; the bill’s sponsors and Coughlin argued adding dangerous escaped inmates fits within those existing public-safety uses when strict criteria are met.
The hearing record shows written-only testimony from Sheriff Bruce Zukowski and Shane Barker was on file for the committee to review. No public witness testimony was presented at the table, and the committee concluded the proponent hearing on Sub. H.B. 23.
