State lawmakers in Columbus have rolled out a bipartisan plan that would put repeat domestic violence offenders on a public, statewide list for anyone to search. House Bill 846 would let courts order people with multiple convictions under Ohio’s domestic-violence statute into an online database run by law enforcement, a move backers say is meant to give survivors, family members and service providers another way to spot serial abusers.
As outlined by the Ohio House of Representatives, the proposal would carve a new section into the Ohio Revised Code and task the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation with maintaining a repeat domestic violence offender registry. The measure lists Reps. Cecil Thomas (D-Cincinnati) and Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) as primary sponsors and currently sits in the House Public Safety Committee.
How the registry would work
Under the bill, a "repeat domestic violence offender" is anyone convicted of, or pleading guilty or no contest to, a violation of section 2919.25 who already has one or more prior convictions under that same statute.
As detailed by the Ohio Legislature, courts would have to order qualifying defendants to register with BCI, and court clerks would be required to send certified conviction records to the bureau within seven days. People ordered to register would have to provide a certified copy of the conviction, their name, date of birth, the date of the qualifying conviction, a current photograph and a copy of a driver’s license or state ID.
BCI would then post the offender's conviction record, photo and related details on its website, while keeping certain personal identifiers off-limits, including home addresses and Social Security numbers. The bill also lays out how long someone stays on the list, tied to how many prior domestic-violence convictions they have: two years for one prior, five years for two priors and ten years for three or more.
Why backers say it is needed
Supporters say the registry is designed to reveal repeat patterns that can get lost when incidents are handled as one-off cases, and to help survivors and service providers make safety plans with better information. The Ohio Domestic Violence Network has reported a spike in lethal intimate-partner incidents in its most recent annual fatality count, documenting 157 domestic-violence-related deaths in Ohio between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.
Proponents elsewhere have pointed to Tennessee’s recent adoption of a similar law as a model Ohio lawmakers can study when they get into the weeds on how to build and run a new registry.
Critics raise privacy and effectiveness concerns
Not everyone is convinced putting names and photos online is the answer. Civil-liberties and survivor-advocacy groups warn that public registries can backfire, especially in smaller communities where listing an offender can indirectly expose victims and their families. They also argue that a list built only from criminal convictions risks giving the public a false sense of security, since many abusers are never arrested or convicted at all.
As reported by The Guardian, advocates have raised concerns that registries may miss the bulk of abusive behavior and could even discourage reporting if victims fear their cases might trigger community-wide attention. Local coverage has also quoted state advocates warning that the bill's public listing requirement poses real privacy and safety questions that need careful scrutiny before a registry goes live.
What happens next
HB 846 remains parked in the House Public Safety Committee, where lawmakers are expected to hold hearings and consider amendments. If it moves forward, the bill would still need to clear both chambers of the Legislature and be signed by the governor before becoming law.
The text already assigns specific duties to courts, clerks and BCI, so committee fights are likely to center on how the registry would actually operate and whether additional protections for survivors or new appeal processes should be added.
The proposal drops into a broader national argument over how far states should go with offender lists. Some are moving to create similar registries, while many domestic-violence organizations are urging strict safeguards to avoid exposing victims or giving the public misleading assurances about safety. Ohio lawmakers and advocates are now weighing those tradeoffs as HB 846 starts its trip through the committee gauntlet.
