Richland County's Court Services has assigned a probation officer full-time to the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.

Director David Leitenberger says his eight probation officers have worked part-time with the task force for four years, so he appointed J-J Bittinger to fill the need for a closer working relationship. 

Both say sharing resources helps each law enforcement agency find wanted offenders.

A key goal of the closer partnership is to bring U-S Marshals along on home-checks and bar-sweeps, to not only find people in violation of their parole and probation, but to also find wanted fugitives.