The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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This article is really for any Ohio law enforcement officers out there.
After watching all these other States pass police reform laws I wasn’t too concerned about crazy laws coming to Ohio. Figured our conservative legislature wouldn’t do anything crazy. How wrong I was.
A week or so ago I was made aware that the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 1 during their lame duck session back in December. HB1 was written with the intent of changing the rules for Intervention In Lieu of Conviction and sealing of criminal records, at least according to their website info.
On it’s face that’s not a bad thing, if you ask me. I’m all for reforming ILC and making it a bit easier to seal a record. But here’s where things get crazy. Before passing HB 1, they decided to combine HB 1 with Senate Bill 18. SB 18 deals with handcuffing and restraining pregnant females. So the bill that was actually passed places severe restrictions on when pregnant females can be handcuffed.
The intent of SB 18, at least from what I was able to gather from news articles, was to ban the handcuffing/shackling of pregnant women in prison and jail settings when they were transported to the hospital or at the hospital giving birth. Now, if this was truly happening then I totally understand the outrage over that practice. And I agree that handcuffing or shackling a female inmate who is in the hospital giving birth is pretty dumb. But HB 1 doesn’t says anything about this law only applying to inmates. It covers a lot more than that.
Here are the highlights of HB 1:
- Applies to both pregnant juveniles and adults who have been charged with a crime/delinquent act, are in court proceedings for said act, have been convicted and serving a sentence/disposition of said act and are in the custody of an LEO/CO.
- Applies to law enforcement, court officers/bailiffs and corrections officers
- Prohibits the LEO/CO from “knowingly restrain(ing) or confine(ing) a woman who is a charged or convicted criminal offender during any of the following periods of time:
- (1) If the woman is pregnant, at any time during her pregnancy;
- (2) If the woman is pregnant, during transport to a hospital, during labor, or during delivery
- (3) If the woman was pregnant, during any period of postpartum recovery up to six weeks after the woman’s pregnancy.”
- “Restrain” means “use any shackles, handcuffs, or other physical restraint.”
- “Confine” means “to place in solitary confinement in an enclosed space.”
As with most statutes within the Ohio Revised Code, there are exceptions. In this particular case there is an exception that allows us to handcuff a pregnant female in an “Emergency circumstance”. Which means a “sudden, urgent, unexpected incident or occurrence that requires an immediate reaction and restraint of the charged or convicted criminal offender who is pregnant for an emergency situation faced by a law enforcement, court, or corrections official.”
But wait, there’s more. If you do have to handcuff them during an “emergency circumstance”, then once things calm down you have to call their Doctor and let them know what you did.
Now let’s say you have to go pick up a pregnant female, who happens to have a history of escape and assaulting the police, at a jail or prison. Before handcuffing them (you can never use leg restraints, shackles or waist restraints) you must make a determination that they need some sort of restraint because of their history and then you must contact their Doctor and get permission. Which the Doctor can deny. And if they do deny it, you’re just SOL.
Let’s see, what did I forget? Oh, yes. If you do violate any of the restrictions you have just read about, it’s a crime. Interfering with civil rights. A misdemeanor of the 1st degree.
If you haven’t clicked the link to read the bill, please do so and then come back. After reading the bill yourself, what questions did you come up with? Here are a few I came up with:
- What standard will the court’s use to determine if we “had knowledge that the female is pregnant or was pregnant”? Do we now need to ask every female we arrest – are you pregnant? Have you had a baby in the last 6 weeks?
- Does “other physical restraint” mean some other form of restraint device that’s different from handcuffs, leg shackles or waist restraints? Or does it include escort holds? How about securing a females arms while they’re patted down for weapons?
- What if it’s after hours and we can’t get ahold of their Doctor? What if they don’t have a Doctor?
- Does placing an unhandcuffed female in the backseat of a police car (which has a partition and doors that cannot be opened from the inside) count as confinement for the purposes of this section?
- How many jails have a “we won’t take them unless they’re handcuffed” policy? Every one that I’ve ever been to. No exception in the law for that. Hopefully the Sheriff’s all make sure their jail staff know about this law.
I’m not sure who I’m more disgusted with – the politicians who voted for this poorly written law (this had bipartisan support with only 1 nay in the House and 1 nay in the Senate) or the CO or LEO (or a stupid agency policy) that started this mess.
As a Basic Academy Legal Instructor I thought, “hey I’ll ask OPOTA what they’re putting in the Basic Academy lesson plans to cover this”. But they’re still working on it. My agency is reaching out to our legal department to get some guidance, but my suggestion is that you find out how your agency is gonna handle this. And spread the word amongst your brothers and sisters.
And for those of you who aren’t in law enforcement who may be wondering what the big deal is – don’t think pregnant = non-violent/non-dangerous. There have been many people killed by pregnant women. Beyond the Officer safety factor, not securing an arrestee’s hands (pregnant or otherwise) give them an opportunity to conceal or destroy evidence while they’re sitting in the back of a police car.
And no. This isn’t an early April Fool’s joke. I wish it was. Read up on it. Protect yourself and your co-workers by learning what you can and spreading the word. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have an on the ball legal department at work and they’ve already given you some guidance.
Stay safe.
