(A) Any person who is the immediate family member of a public safety officer who died while performing honorably in the line of duty may apply to the registrar of motor vehicles for the registration of any passenger car, noncommercial motor vehicle, recreational vehicle, or other vehicle of a class approved by the registrar that the person owns or leases and for issuance of line of duty sacrifice license plates for that motor vehicle. The application for line of duty sacrifice license plates may be combined with a request for a special reserved license plate under section 4503.40 or 4503.42 of the Revised Code. Upon receipt of the completed application and compliance with division (B) of this section, the registrar shall issue to the applicant the appropriate vehicle registration and a set of line of duty sacrifice license plates and a validation sticker or a validation sticker alone when required by section 4503.191 of the Revised Code.

In addition to the letters and numbers ordinarily inscribed on the license plates, line of duty sacrifice license plates shall be inscribed with a distinctive emblem and words that are designed by the gold star family committee and approved by the registrar. Line of duty sacrifice license plates shall bear county identification stickers that identify the county of registration as required under section 4503.19 of the Revised Code.

(B) Line of duty sacrifice license plates and a validation sticker or, when applicable, avalidation sticker alone shall be issued upon submission by the applicant of an application for registration of a motor vehicle under this section, payment of the regular license tax as prescribed under section 4503.04 of the Revised Code, any applicable motor vehicle tax levied under Chapter 4504. of the Revised Code, and any applicable additional fee prescribed by section 4503.40 or 4503.42 of the Revised Code, and compliance with all other applicable laws relating to the registration of motor vehicles.

(C) No person who is not an immediate family member of a public safety officer who died while performing honorably in the line of duty shall purposely represent that the person is such a family member for the purpose of obtaining license plates under this section.

(D) As used in this section:

(1) "Public safety officer" means a firefighter, emergency medical service personnel, law enforcement officer, corrections officer, probation officer, or parole officer.

(2) "Immediate family member" means all of the following:

(a) A spouse;

(b) A parent, stepparent, or other person who acted in loco parentis;

(c) A sibling, whether of the whole or half-blood, or by adoption;

(d) A child, including those by adoption, or a stepchild;

(e) A grandchild, including those by adoption, or a step-grandchild;

(f) Any other lineal descendant not otherwise listed in division (D)(2) of this section;

(g) A grandparent or great-grandparent.

Added by 132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 134, §1, eff. 3/23/2018.