Ohio corrections officials are asking the public for help finding Steven Sickler, a 37-year-old Akron man who has gone missing from state supervision after violating the terms of his release. The Adult Parole Authority has flagged Sickler, who lists a Summit County address and was assigned to the Akron 2 APA office, as wanted for breaking the conditions of his supervision, and warns that he should be considered dangerous and possibly armed.
The alert came Wednesday as part of the state's ongoing “Warrant Wednesday” bulletin series, which the Akron Police Department shared on Facebook. According to the posting, Sickler, identified by inmate number A704439, was admitted to state custody on January 30, 2018, and his record lists offenses of breaking and entering, harassment by inmate, and assault. Ohio officials describe him as a white male born September 2, 1988, and say that, at the time of the posting, he was wanted by the Adult Parole Authority for violating his supervision conditions.
What Counts as an Absconder in Ohio
Sickler's case fits a pattern the state has been tracking closely. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction classifies supervised individuals as absconders when they miss mandatory reporting appointments, relocate without administrative approval, or tamper with court-ordered electronic monitoring devices, according to a January report from WOWO. That same report found more than 1,700 Ohio offenders classified as missing from post-release supervision or parole statewide, drawn from state corrections data.
Part of the challenge, per the same report, is workload: an Ohio Adult Parole Authority officer supervised an average of 48 individuals statewide in 2025, a caseload that can complicate efforts to track people the moment they stop reporting. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Field Services section oversees roughly 27,000 people across six state regions under probation, parole, and post-release control, including local field offices such as the Akron 2 office that had been managing Sickler's case.
The State's Fugitive-Tracking Unit
Once someone like Sickler stops complying with supervision, responsibility for locating them falls to a specialized unit. Created in 1992, the Adult Parole Authority's Fugitive Section is dedicated to managing, tracking, and clearing warrants for people who abscond from supervision or escape state custody, and individuals in that status are administratively designated as Parole Violators at Large. The state says anyone with information about Sickler's whereabouts can contact a fugitive coordinator by email at [email protected] or call the fugitive section at 614-752-1114, and that all information received will be kept confidential.
Under Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4501:2-10-03, law enforcement agencies must enter active warrants into state databases and officers must verify warrants through LEADS/NCIC before making an arrest, a safeguard meant to prevent improper detention based on outdated alerts. The state's posting stresses that the public should not attempt to apprehend Sickler directly; anyone who believes they have spotted him is directed to contact local law enforcement or 911 instead.
A Recurring Regional Tactic
Warrant Wednesday-style alerts have become a routine tool for Summit County-area agencies looking to crowdsource tips on wanted individuals. Hoodline has previously reported on similar bulletins, including one seeking an Akron woman on breaking and entering and fentanyl possession allegations and another that put an Akron robbery suspect in the spotlight. The approach has also spread beyond Summit County, with the Butler County Sheriff's Office launching its own weekly Warrant Wednesday campaign earlier this year to engage the public in manhunts.
A person named Steven Sickler of Akron was arrested in September 2011 on an alleged robbery charge after reportedly attempting to take a case of beer by force from a Cuyahoga Falls Circle K, according to a police blotter entry published by Patch at the time; that report predates the current supervision case and reflects a preliminary police action rather than a conviction. It remains unclear from the state's posting how long Sickler has been unaccounted for or what specifically prompted his removal from the Akron 2 office's active caseload.
