Ohio legislators say bill for rest stop cameras would increase safety
By Hevin Wilkey/Kent State NewsLab
Some Ohio legislators want to have cameras at every highway rest stop by June 2031 to help limit human trafficking and make travelers feel safer. Last year, House Bill 473 would have given the Ohio Department of Transportation the timeline and funding to do just that.
But the bill didn’t pass. It reached the House Homeland Security Committee and was declared dead once the session ended. Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) expects to try again with a new bill soon.
Even if the bill doesn’t pass again, out of 85 rest stops in Ohio, cameras will be installed at the 36 Gov. Mike DeWine plans to renovate and build by 2026. McNally expects the total price of the project to cost between $182,028 and $507,967.
“Specifically, Toledo, the Toledo Interchange area, is one of the number one places in the country for [human trafficking],” said McNally. “So anything that we can do to curb that trend we’re always looking at, from a legal perspective at the State House and from a police perspective. But it also does more than that, like when we talk to the Turnpike Association, they’ve actually been able to solve crimes and stop crimes from happening.”
She said the idea of the bill came from the Ohio Association for Justice’s Women’s Caucus Section specifically for human trafficking, but it also could be beneficial in other scenarios. McNally’s examples included finding and securing a man with dementia and a woman forgetting her purse at a rest stop.
The bridge between McNally and the Women’s Caucus was Mahoning County Juvenile Court magistrate Gina DeGenova, a former prosecutor who testified for the bill. DeGenova said she has worked on a handful of human trafficking cases and wants to help Ohio implement a solution. Six other Democratic state representatives co-sponsored HB473.
“With these cameras, we’re able to capture what is going on when an actual person can’t be there to witness it,” DeGenova said. “Having a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in these locations is an extremely beneficial tool for law enforcement.”
Some studies have found that cameras are one of the most effective ways to reduce crime. Swedish non-profit organization SNS learned through a series of randomized experiments that 20-25% less crime is committed when there is a surveillance camera present.
The ACLU of Ohio testified against the bill. They were concerned about the privacy of people who would end up on the recordings and if this bill would set a precedent for the government to further surveil people.
Chief lobbyist Gary Daniels said he wonders about the limitations of public records, who has access to these recordings and how long they will be kept. According to the bill, the Ohio Department of Transportation would decide. Depending on the new bill’s language and how busy the ACLU of Ohio is, Daniels said he might testify against it again.
The cons of government and police surveillance on citizens’ privacy outweigh the chances of deterring some crimes, Daniels said.
“If you’re a human trafficker and you’ve got a van full of people or one person or something that you shouldn’t be trafficking around, you’re just going to start at the gas station an exit away or two exits away,” Daniels said.
McNally understands this won’t rid Ohio of crime, but it will help it.
“You slowly chip away and take away all their opportunities to do the crime,” she said, “and maybe eventually you make it so hard that it does actually curb the crime itself.”
Hevin Wilkey wrote this article for Kent State NewsLab. This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.