COLUMBUS — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose spoke this week in support of the expansion of the Safe at Home program, a bill of which was introduced into the Legislature this week.

“Right now, our Safe at Home program is helping protect 863 victims from having their location discovered by their perpetrators, so it’s just common sense to expand the program to allow more opportunities to safeguard identities,” LaRose said in a news release. “I want to thank state Reps. Jeff LaRose and Cindy Abrams for taking on this important issue, and I encourage the House to move swiftly to approve this legislation.”

Victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, menacing by stalking, rape or sexual battery are at risk of being discovered by their perpetrators through public government records.

The Safe at Home program, administered by the Secretary of State’s office, allows victims the opportunity to ensure publicly-available voter registration or other government databases can’t be used to allow that to happen.

Currently, there are 863 victims that utilize the program to protect their home address.

This legislation expands Safe at Home to authorize a real property confidentiality notice to shield a home address on county websites and greater protection of a participant’s address in court records.