Section 5139.53 | Employees authorized to apprehend violators.
(A)(1) The director of youth services shall designate certain employees of the department of youth services, including regional administrators, as persons who are authorized, in accordance with section 5139.52 of the Revised Code, to execute an order of apprehension or a warrant for, or otherwise to arrest, children in the custody of the department who are violating or are alleged to have violated the terms and conditions of supervised release or judicial release to department of youth services supervision.
(2) The director of youth services may designate some of the employees designated under division (A)(1) of this section as employees authorized to carry a firearm issued by the department while on duty for their protection in carrying out official duties.
(B)(1) An employee of the department designated by the director pursuant to division (A)(1) of this section as having the authority to execute orders of apprehension or warrants and to arrest children as described in that division shall not undertake an arrest until the employee has successfully completed training courses regarding the making of arrests by employees of that nature that are developed in cooperation with and approved by the executive director of the Ohio peace officer training commission. The courses shall include, but shall not be limited to, training in arrest tactics, defensive tactics, the use of force, and response tactics.
(2) The director of youth services shall develop, and shall submit to the governor for the governor's approval, a deadly force policy for the department. The deadly force policy shall require each employee who is designated under division (A)(2) of this section to carry a firearm in the discharge of official duties to receive training in the use of deadly force, shall specify the number of hours and the general content of the training in the use of deadly force that each of the designated employees must receive, and shall specify the procedures that must be followed after the use of deadly force by any of the designated employees. Upon receipt of the policy developed by the director under this division, the governor, in writing, promptly shall approve or disapprove the policy. If the governor, in writing, disapproves the policy, the director shall develop and resubmit a new policy under this division, and no employee shall be trained under the disapproved policy. If the governor, in writing, approves the policy, the director shall adopt it as a department policy and shall distribute it to each employee designated under (A)(2) of this section to carry a firearm in the discharge of official duties. An employee designated by the director pursuant to division (A)(2) of this section to carry a firearm in the discharge of official duties shall not carry a firearm until the employee has successfully completed both of the following:
(a) Training in the use of deadly force that comports with the policy approved by the governor and developed and adopted by the director under division (B)(2) of this section. The training required by this division shall be conducted at a training school approved by the Ohio peace officer training commission and shall be in addition to the training described in divisions (B)(1) and (2)(b) of this section that the employee must complete prior to undertaking an arrest and separate from and independent of the training required by division (B)(2)(b) of this section.
(b) A basic firearm training program that is conducted at a training school approved by the Ohio peace officer training commission and that is substantially similar to the basic firearm training program for peace officers conducted at the Ohio peace officer training academy and has received a certificate of satisfactory completion of that program from the executive director of the Ohio peace officer training commission. The training described in this division that an employee must complete prior to carrying a firearm shall be in addition to the training described in division (B)(1) of this section that the employee must complete prior to undertaking an arrest.
(C) After receipt of a certificate of satisfactory completion of a basic firearm training program, to maintain the right to carry a firearm in the discharge of official duties, an employee authorized under this section to carry a firearm shall successfully complete a firearms requalification program in accordance with section 109.801 of the Revised Code.
(D) Each employee authorized to carry a firearm shall give bond to the state to be approved by the clerk of the court of common pleas in the county of that employee's residence. The bond shall be in the sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned to save the public harmless by reason of the unlawful use of a firearm. A person injured or the family of a person killed by the employee's improper use of a firearm may have recourse on the bond.
(E) In addition to the deadly force policy adopted under division (B)(2) of this section, the director of youth services shall establish policies for the carrying and use of firearms by the employees that the director designates under this section.
Available Versions of this Section
- July 5, 2002 – House Bill 393 - 124th General Assembly [ View July 5, 2002 Version ]