The Delaware County Prosecutor was appointed to a state commission at the beginning of this month.

On Nov. 1, Governor John Kasich announced that Delaware County Prosecutor Carol Hamilton O’Brien had been appointed to the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission. The governor’s office reported that she will serve on the commission effective immediately and continue to serve until Sept. 3, 2017.

O’Brien said Wednesday that the commission acts as a resource for law enforcement to combat organized crime locally and in cases that extend across multiple jurisdictions.

“[The commission] provides resources and expertise and they do a phenomenal job,” O’Brien said. “I’m very excited.”

O’Brien said the commission is two prosecutors, two sheriffs, two police chiefs and Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine. O’Brien said it is a bipartisan commission and said one of each of the positions must be filed by a Republican and the other must be filled by a Democrat.

O’Brien said before she was the county prosecutor she worked as the chief legal counsel for the attorney general’s office and she put her hat in the ring when she learned that a position would be vacated.

O’Brien said she will be replacing Hancock County Prosecutor Mark Miller since he was recently appointed as Findlay Municipal Court Judge. O’Brien said after the conclusion of Miller’s term on Sept. 3, 2017, she will have to reapply to the position. The terms are three years long.

She said the commission also assembles and directs organized crime task forces across Ohio.

“Organized crime is very broad,” O’Brien said. “There’s a lot of crime that is part of an organized activity.” O’Brien said for example there are criminal organizations that focus on cashing fraudulent checks or recruit people to steal items from retail locations. “A lot of people think of it as the mob. While that exists, it’s not what most organized crime is like.”