Ohio Governor DeWine Announces Domestic Violence Programs: Shelter Grants, Ballistic Shields and a Statewide Response Standard
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Oct. 22, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, announced several initiatives to enhance services for domestic violence survivors and to better train and protect law enforcement officers responding to domestic violence calls. The announcement followed new data from the Ohio Department of Public Safety's Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS), which analyzed nearly 50 years of computerized criminal history data — about 2 million violent crime arrests in Ohio from 1974 to 2023 — and found domestic violence is the most prevalent violent crime in the state: just over half of all violent crime arrests included a domestic violence charge, 70 percent of those arrested for domestic violence were repeat violent offenders, and the share rose to 56 percent over the last five years of the study.
The measures include an additional $1 million for Ohio's 55 OCJS-recognized domestic violence shelters, a one-time grant of $18,000 each; a new grant program for ballistic shields for officers responding to high-risk calls, as a companion to the Bulletproof Vest Grant Program created in 2018; a grant program for law enforcement training on research-validated lethality assessments; and grants supporting co-responder models that pair victim service advocates with law enforcement agencies on scene.
DeWine also directed the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board to develop a statewide standard for responding to and investigating domestic violence incidents, incorporating the Ohio Domestic Violence Network's (ODVN) Law Enforcement Handbook issued in April. OCJS will support ODVN in providing seven free regional training sessions on the handbook. "How wonderful that our member shelter programs will receive an additional $18,000 to support their work. It's like Christmas in October," said ODVN executive director Mary O'Doherty.
Related: 134 Killed in Domestic Violence Incidents in Ohio in a Year: Nearly Half Were Trying to Leave
Related: Newsom Signs AB 1657, Unifying DV Restraining-Order Rules Statewide
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：俄亥俄州州长 Mike DeWine（Gov-Mike-DeWine，作者：Vivien McClain Photography，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (Vivien McClain Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
