02/13/2024

House Bill 56

ENACTED: Effective October 22, 2024

Lead Sponsors: Representative Phil Plummer and Representative Andrea White

Status: Passed the House 83-6 (December 13, 2023), Passed the Senate 31-0 (June 26, 2024), House concurred 91-1 (June 26, 2024), Signed by Governor (July 24, 2024)

Description: The bill increases the penalty for eluding or fleeing a police officer using a motor vehicle from a first-degree misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony (or a third-degree felony if flight is immediately after the commission of a felony) and requires that all law enforcement entities to consider pursuit policy standards and best practices, and to train its officers on the policy. 

The bill also creates criminal offenses (first-degree misdemeanors) for the acts of stunt driving (burnouts, doughnuts, tire-squealing, etc.) and for street takeovers (impeding the regular flow of traffic to facilitate street racing or stunt driving).

The bill also reinstates a provision of former law pertaining to the amount of the fee to reinstate one's driver's license after failure to maintain proof of insurance and the distribution of a portion of the fees to a fund used to provide reimbursement to counties for indigent defense costs.

Under current law, the fine for not having auto insurance is $100 for the first offense, $300 for the second offense, and $600 for subsequent offenses, with $50 of the $300 fine and $100 of the $600 fine being allocated to county indigent defense reimbursement. A provision in the operating budget would have changed the fine for all offenses to $40 and the amount distributed to the indigent defense reimbursement fund to $10 of each fine. Governor DeWine vetoed the language pertaining to the fine amounts but not the language concerning the amount of each fine directed to indigent defense reimbursement; this resulted in only $10 of the $300 fine and $10 of the $600 fine going to reimbursement. The bill reverts those amounts back to $50 and $100, respectively.

CCAO Position: No position.

Other Notes: The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association provided proponent testimony (House; Senate).