The fatal shooting of a Danville police officer in January left several Ohio communities stunned and police officers across the state mourning.

But the pain of the death of 34-year-old Thomas Cottrell Jr. is exacerbated by word that holes in the system may have helped to create the environment in which he died…

Herschel Jones III, the man charged with killing Cottrell, was arrested on a DUI charge in September and spent three days in jail in November.

… Jones’ parole officer knew nothing of the entry when he downgraded Jones’ supervision level just days after he was accused of the DUI.

He didn’t know because when he did an annual check for arrests, he found none because Jones was not booked into a county jail when he was charged.

That meant, the only person required to notify him about the charges was Jones himself…

In the absence of a sudden burst of honesty by convicted criminals, a better system is required…

An excellent example of how this works rests in the Victim Information and Notification Everyday system… The system allows crime victims … to obtain timely and reliable information about criminal cases and the custody status of offenders…

A revamped system that tracks all those on parole or probation and alerts … would better serve the public…

The Chillicothe Gazette