YS Police Department expands victim advocacy services to Cedarville, Jamestown
- Published: April 10, 2025
At a special meeting, Monday, March 31, Village Council approved two resolutions to provide advocacy services to victims of misdemeanor crimes of violence committed not just in Yellow Springs, but also in Jamestown and Cedarville.
As the News has previously reported, the Xenia Law Department ceased providing victim advocacy services to those three municipalities on April 1.
The contracts with Jamestown and Cedarville that Council approved stipulate that the Yellow Springs Police Department — specifically, the department’s community outreach specialist, Florence Randolph — will now do the following:
• Act as support for victims and/or witnesses of a crime;
• Act as a liaison between the victims and the prosecutor assigned to the case;
• Provide information to the victims about the court system and of their rights as victims of crime under the Ohio Revised Code and state constitution;
• Make referrals to social service agencies;
• Notify victims of trial dates, continuances, hearings, sentencing dates and other hearings;
• Assist victims in preparing victim impact statements;
• Assist victims in obtaining protection orders in domestic violence or stalking cases.
The two contracts with Jamestown and Cedarville will expire in six months — a provision, Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship told Council members, that was built into the agreement to allow the three villages to confer regarding the scope and cost of the victim advocate services, based on the number of those services rendered over the half-year period.
As the number of criminal charges filed through the Xenia Municipal Court by Jamestown, Cedarville and Yellow Springs indicate, Randolph’s criminal case load will likely double.
Between 2022 and 2024, Jamestown filed 101 criminal cases; Cedarville filed 105; and Yellow Springs filed 216.
Per the contract, Cedarville and Jamestown will each pay the Village $404.56 per month for the Village’s victim advocate services.
Aside from working with and helping victims of criminal cases beyond the municipal boundaries of Yellow Springs, Police Chief Paige Burge told the News following Monday’s Council meeting that Randolph’s job will largely remain the same.
“Now, it’ll be a little more formal,” Burge said. “The practical execution of these services, or the ‘boots on the ground’ work she’ll be doing is helping victims through every step of the criminal process — all the way through the sentencing of a criminal, and how that would affect the victim afterwards.”
Burge continued: “Community outreach specialists and victim advocates are important elements in our criminal justice system. We’re blessed and thankful to have Florence.”
At a forthcoming Village Council meeting, Chief Burge plans to petition the group to approve the creation of a second community outreach specialist position within the YS police department.
“This has been an existing need, and although that’s a separate issue, what better time than now to add that position to help Florence out,” Burge said.
Upcoming: Camera footage fee?
At the next Village Council meeting, Monday, April 7, the group will likely consider a resolution that would enact a policy to permit the Village to charge a fee for public records requests for body-worn camera footage from the YS Police Department.
The proposed legislation comes on the heels of the Ohio General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 315 — otherwise known as the Township Omnibus Bill, which is set to go into effect April 3.
Beginning then, state and local law enforcement agencies will be permitted to charge the cost — capped at $75 per hour of footage, with a total cap of $750 — of preparing video records for inspection or production.
As Chief Burge told the News, the bill was introduced because many law enforcement departments throughout Ohio have been “inundated” with public records requests for body-worn camera footage.
“Those kinds of public records requests require a good amount of review and/or redaction from the department — often for the protection of a victim — and that process is insanely time-consuming,” Burge said.
She added that some of the department staffers have previously estimated that a request for a single hour worth of body-worn camera footage can take “up to four hours” to process.
“Fulfilling public records requests is something we’re committed to doing to ensure complete transparency. We have no issue with releasing anything, but at the end of the day, time is money,” Burge said.
According to YSPD data, 17 requests for police camera footage were made in 2023, 12 in 2024 and three so far this year. Nearly half of those total requests were made from independent news and media outlets that, according to Burge, often sensationalize and profit from the footage.
“There are just so many YouTube channels, websites, TikTok accounts and more that, by and large, sell ads with their videos,” Burge said. “It’s a lucrative business and good TV for some folks — what cops do, I mean.”
The YouTube Channel “PoliceActivity,” for example, has over 6.47 million subscribers. Their 2,250 videos have been viewed over 2.8 billion times.
Burge said that the resolution Council will consider next week may have a provision that would exempt Yellow Springs residents — including the News — from paying the fee, which, as of press time, has yet to be determined. According to Burge, Village staff are still “exploring” that exemption.
“This is really just about making sure that our Village employees — these taxpayer-funded positions — are using their time wisely, and that the department is made even for its work,” Burge said.
Village Council considered an official piece of legislation implementing the fee schedule at the most recent regular Village Council meeting on Monday, April 7. The group ultimately decided to table the resolution until the April 21 meeting.
Read more about the April 7 meeting and the discussion regarding public records request fees in this week’s issue of the News.
One Response to “YS Police Department expands victim advocacy services to Cedarville, Jamestown”
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Yellow Springs has as many criminal cases as Cedarville and Jamestown (combined) with only half of their combined population ? Sounds like water losses isn’t the only thing the village needs to get a handle on….