Ohio AG Dave Yost launches statewide crime dashboard for public access

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost introduced the Ohio Crime Statistics Dashboard on Friday, which permits insight into felony crimes and sentencing trends across the state, according to a press release.

“This data has countless applications, whether it’s helping families understand community safety or guiding policymakers in improving criminal justice laws,” Yost said in the press release. “Most importantly, it strengthens accountability and helps ensure that violent offenders get the sentences they deserve. Knowledge is power.”

The dashboard can be found on the attorney general’s website. It has felony arrest and sentencing data for the past 10 years in all 88 counties and is the first public-facing dashboard of its kind in Ohio, the press release said.

Users can filter the data by specifying the date, county, offender demographics and the type and degree of offense, among other things. An interactive map and several graphs are also available on the dashboard.

By applying the filter for Mahoning County 749 arrests have been made so far this year, with possession of controlled substances consisting of 303 of those arrests.

For Trumbull County, there have been 675 arrests. Similarly, possession of controlled substances is the highest felony offense with 231.

Both counties had felonious assault as their top violent felony offense (Mahoning, 41, and Trumbull, 50). Individuals between 31 and 40 years old were also the most likely to be arrested in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The Ohio Crime Statistics Dashboard pulls its data from the state’s Computerized Criminal History database, which relies on self-reports from hundreds of law enforcement agencies. As a result, data can be fragmented if reporting is done inconsistently.

The dashboard also warns users not to view offender demographics in a certain light since judges base sentencing decisions on aspects that are unavailable to the public.

“Drawing inferences about race-, sex- or age-based influence is dangerous, incendiary and not supported by the level of detail available in this dashboard,” the dashboard said.

The press release said it will add more data to the dashboard to ensure its use remains valuable over time.