Hollister
– San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill is working on bringing
OffenderWatch to San Benito, a program designed to more effectively
track sex offenders and inform community members of their
whereabouts.
Hollister – San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill is working on bringing OffenderWatch to San Benito, a program designed to more effectively track sex offenders and inform community members of their whereabouts.
The program would track sex offenders via registrations through the Sheriff’s Department and then inform neighbors through a variety of communications such as e-mail notifications and post card notifications, according to the program’s Web site. Hill said there is no current notification process in place.
“You either have to come down and ask your local law enforcement agency or they have to go on the web site,” Hill said.
Hill plans to take the program to the County Board of Supervisors and will request the program be implemented countywide, including the City of Hollister. County Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz said he would be in favor of such a program.
“That was something I was trying to implement a couple of years ago,” De La Cruz said. “It’s coming from the right person. It’s coming from the sheriff.”
De La Cruz added he is in favor of any program that helps protect children.
The number of registered sex offenders has increased 21 percent in San Benito County since 2003. The increase reflects the growing population of the state, Hill said.
“California adds 500,000 people every year,” Hill said.
Of the 95 sex offenders in San Benito, 53 live in the Hollister city limits, said Detective Rudy Rodriguez, who is charge of sex offender registrations for the Hollister Police Department. Of the 65 sex offenders listed on the Megan’s Law Web site as living in San Benito County, 40 were convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14.
“The balance not listed on the Web site is due to legal technicalities such as juvenile offenses,” Rodriguez said.
In 2001, there were as many as 79 registered sex offenders living in San Benito County, according to the Sheriff’s Department. In 2002, that number topped out at 89 and then dropped to 78 in 2003, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
A federal judge a week ago blocked enforcement of Proposition 83, the ballot measure approved by 70 percent of California voters in the general election that’s meant to crack down on sex offenders, including limiting where they may live and forcing them to wear Global Positioning Systems for tracking purposes.
The so-called Jessica’s Law prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, effectively prohibiting parolees from living in many of California’s cities. Hill said the restriction would force many offenders out of California’s urban areas and needs to be revised.
Parolees are currently prohibited from living within a quarter-mile – or 1,320 feet – of a school, with a half-mile restriction only for high-risk sex offenders.
A high-risk offender is defined as a person convicted of three or more violent sex offenses or two sex offenses and one non-sex offense.
A serious risk offender includes anyone convicted of sexual battery, rape, incest, sodomy or a multitude of other crimes.
There are no high-risk or serious risk sex offenders in Hollister city limits, Rodriguez said. The Hollister Police Department maintains a team to keep track of sex offenders registered in city limits.
“We’ll go down and pay a visit to somebody, or several somebodies, and make sure they are all in compliance,” Rodriguez said.
A non-compliance usually results in a felony arrest, Rodriguez said.
Tracking sex offenders became a national issue in the 1990s.
Megan’s Law was named for Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered by a known child molester who moved across the street from her home without her parents’ knowledge.
In the wake of this tragedy, California passed the law in 1996 and now has a database that lists sex offenders who have been released from prison and are living throughout the state. There are roughly 90,000 registered sex offenders living in California.
Hill said sex crime issues are just as important to community members as methamphetamine and gang issues.
To view listings of sex offenders, including a map of where some reside in San Benito County, visit the Megan’s Law Web site at www.meganslaw.ca.gov. Those interested can also visit the Hollister Police Department at 395 Apollo Way or the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department at 451 Fourth St.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or mv*********@fr***********.com.
