Protecting Families and Communities

The Path to Progress

• Crack Down on Sexual Predators. Strengthen penalties for repeat, habitual, and child-based offenders, including life-sentences. Ensure that all offenders register with local sheriffs upon release and that communities are notified. Give citizens more tools to know when a sex offender is around. Give sheriffs and prosecutors the tools they need to enforce the laws and monitor offenders post-release. Require the worst offenders to drive vehicles with bright green license plates, so citizens can make informed decisions.
• Zero Tolerance for Repeat Drunk Drivers. Target repeat offenders with a variety of tough penalties including meaningful prison time, vehicle forfeiture, ignition-lock devices and more.
• Expand Drug and Alcohol Treatment Programs. Continue Ohio's award-winning treatment program in state prisons and expand community-based treatment.
• Crack Down on New Trends in Drugs. React quickly to ban new illegal products as they show up on the streets, before they become epidemics. Give police, prosecutors, and judges the tools they need to fight drugs in our communities.
• Provide for Homeland Security. Americans should be protected from terrorism, not blamed for it. Prevent the flow of money to support terrorist causes and make it easier to prosecute terrorists in state courts. Make sure federal homeland security dollars are directed to first-responders - not bureaucracy. Quickly deploy state resources in the event of a crisis.
• Protect Families from Domestic Abuse. Allow judges to better protect victims of domestic abuse. Enforce out-of-state protection orders against abusers. Close loopholes that allow abusers to escape the full force of the law for their crimes.
• Pass Tough Laws Against Human Trafficking. Ban the sale, purchase, and movement against ones will of humans and make it easier to prosecute those who operate sex trade and slavery rings in state court.
• Protect Senior Citizens from Exploitation and Abuse. Pass tough laws against defrauding or physically abusing seniors.

A Record of Progress

• Kevin authored the bill that created Ohio's Amber Alert System, leading to the safe return of over 30 missing or abducted children.
• Kevin Coughlin sponsored and passed legislation for mandatory life without parole for child rapists.
• Kevin has passed legislation allowing judges to order sexual offenders to wear GPS monitoring devices, making tracking them and enforcing sentences easier.
• Responding to prosecutors and sheriffs, Kevin sponsored legislation to make it a felony for sex offenders to live within 1,000 ft. of a school.
• To help sheriffs pay for the costs of monitoring sex offenders in our community, Kevin wrote and passed legislation allowing sheriffs to charge offenders a registration fee.
• Taking the lead to clear our streets of drunk drivers, Kevin passed legislation allowing judges to seize and sell vehicles of repeat offenders. He has helped increase funds for community-based treatment, and has been honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his work.
• Ohio has passed new laws curbing meth production and established tough penalties for production and trafficking.
• Ohio has established the Crime Database Network, allowing the state, local law enforcement, and the FBI to share information more efficiently.
• Kevin helped pass Amy's Law, allowing judges to deny bail to domestic abusers based on their past records. Kevin is also sponsoring legislation to allow protection orders issued against abusers in other states to be enforced here.