Hollister
– The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office will receive $8,000
through a regional grant to better track sex offenders.
Hollister – The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office will receive $8,000 through a regional grant to better track sex offenders.
The grant for the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement task force, spearheaded by Santa Clara County, will provide San Benito with the training and overtime pay for a deputy to work with 11 other California coastal counties to track sex offenders.
Sheriff Curtis Hill said the program will focus on high-risk sex offenders, but will enable San Benito to work with regional partners in keeping an eye on all sex offenders.
“It will enable us to be more accurate with tracking sex offenders,” Hill said.
The deputy assigned to the task force will actively check on the whereabouts of sex offenders, he said.
The program will interface with OffenderWatch, a program put online last month through the sheriff’s office Web site, Hill said. OffenderWatch notifies county residents who sign up for the free service of the movements of sex offenders in their neighborhoods.
The SAFE team will prioritize the tracking of high-risk sex offenders who have committed multiple sex crimes, Hill said.
The grant will also enable San Benito to share information with adjacent counties such as Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Monterey, he said.
Sex offenders are a highly mobile group, Hill said. Approximately 300 sex offenders are let out of California prisons each month, he said.
“There are no high-risk offenders in the county,” Hill said. “But it could change at any time.”
There are 63,000 registered sex offenders in California, according to the Megan’s Law Web site. San Benito County has 98 registered sex offenders, Lt. Roy Iler said.
The grant from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services will provide training and overtime pay for Det. Bryan Penney, who will be San Benito’s point man for the team. The program will allow Penney to work with other counties, assisting in their investigations of sex offenders or requesting assistance in San Benito’s investigations of offenders.
Hill headed to Lake County today to join Penney in getting the program started
“They’re putting together the infrastructure to make this happen on a regional basis,” Hill said.
The region includes San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Lake, Humboldt, Marin, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Mendocino and Solano counties. The $953,250 in funding will be distributed through the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, according to the governor’s office.
The state was divided into seven regions, with $5 million granted statewide.
The decision to partner up with the other counties was an easy one and would not have been possible without Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, Hill said.
“I wouldn’t have been eligible for the grant,” he said. “And even if I was – if I’d gone it alone – I wouldn’t have gotten it.”
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
