Hollister
– San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill unveiled new technology
Thursday that will allow county residents to track sex offenders in
their neighborhoods.
Hollister – San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill unveiled new technology Thursday that will allow county residents to track sex offenders in their neighborhoods.
The program will be accessible through the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office Web site, www.sbcsheriff.org. The Web site allows residents to register their e-mail and physical addresses to receive either electronic or post card notifications of the movements of registered sex offenders within a one-mile radius of their home. Upon registration, the Web site will e-mail a list of all registered sex offenders living within that one-mile radius.
“With Megan’s Law, the community now has to go to the Web site,” Hill said. “With this one we’re going to them.”
Mark Wilson, vice president of sales and marketing for Watch Systems, the company that runs OffenderWatch, said the Megan’s Law registry has a lag because it is a centralized, state-run database. Law enforcement agencies have to submit their sex offender registry information to the California Department of Justice, which in turn has to update the Web site. Wilson said the OffenderWatch program updates the Web site from the Sheriff’s Office sex offender registry instantly.
The Megan’s Law Web site also requires users to check the site periodically for the whereabouts of sex offenders living near them.
“People want to be proactively notified,” Wilson said. “They do not want to have to go back to the registry.”
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the $7,500 from the county’s general fund for the program in December 2006.
Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller agreed to incorporate the Hollister Police Department’s registered sex offender database into the OffenderWatch program. Miller said the safety tips section of the Web site, which provide educational statistics and advice on dealing with sex offenders living in close proximity, is a good feature.
As of Thursday, there were 92 registered sex offenders living in San Benito County, according to Penney. The number of registered sex offenders living in San Benito has slightly increased from 2001, when there were 79, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
But San Benito may not have as many sex offenders when compared to other counties, Hill said. Siskiyou County, which has a smaller population than San Benito, has twice as many sex offenders, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Tehama County, while slightly more populous than San Benito, has almost three times as many sex offenders, according to the OES.
“My sense is we have a lower ratio than other counties,” Hill said.
And San Benito’s deputies do a good job of staying on top of those offenders’ whereabouts, Det. Bryan Penney said.
“Our compliance level is No. 1 in the state,” Penney said.
San Benito County is the first Bay Area county and fourth California county to adopt the OffenderWatch program, Hill said. Kings County, Tehama County and Placer County also have OffenderWatch, Wilson said.
If other California counties adopt OffenderWatch, San Benito will develop more resources to import the complete address history of incoming sex offenders, Wilson said. Merced County, Contra Costa County, San Joaquin County and Sacramento County are among counties working to get OffenderWatch.
“Others are in various stages of following the leaders like San Benito County,” Wilson said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
