CO- Sex offender data may be headed to TV

See also: Coming soon to a TV near you: Sexually violent predators in Aurora

1-2-2009 Colorado:

AURORA The city’s police department came one step closer Tuesday to implementing a new way to notify residents when a sexually violent predator is released into the community.

During the Tuesday meeting of the city’s Public Safety and Courts Committee meeting, Police Lt. Robert Stef suggested using video and online notifications as a way to alert citizens. Stef said the new system, which could draw on the city’s pubic access cable channel to broadcast alerts, would work to address lagging attendance during community meetings.

“What we’re seeing over time is that the numbers of the citizens have been really dropping off drastically,” Stef said regarding public attendance at community notification meetings, which has lagged since they were first held in Aurora in 2007.

Stef said that a Dec. 17 community meeting drew no residents, while the cost of mailing out notifications amounted to about $650.

--Note: Face it folks, the general public is getting wise to the LE HYSTERIA tactics (trying to justify registrants are bad folks) and are going on with their lives, so leave them alone, they can access the registry if they so chose.

--Note: The public should think twicw about this form of community notification. If it costs $650.00 postage alone, before a meeting where salary costs are implicated, for notification of EACH registrant that moves into a area, can you imagine what this adds up to. And, since notification usually causes registrants to move often, open pocketbooks are the order of the day.. Think about it.

Stef said a digital means of notification as a substitute could work well on several different levels. The notifications, which would come in the form of a DVD template, could be broadcast on Aurora’s public access cable channel.

“We actually developed our own DVD for Aurora ... It is a template. We are mandated by law to provide certain information,” Stef said. “At the bottom of that template, every time we have a new (sexually violent predator) move in, we just add that information.”

The time slots on KACT-TV Channel 8 would be used for sexual violent predator updates, as well as other department-related bulletins like recruitment updates, advisories and other items.

--Note: It is unlikely 5 people, anywhere in the viewing area, could tell you what was broadcast in these time slots, so their choice would probably be better for those registrants.

The committee withheld final approval of the shift, pending a review of the police department’s DVD template by the committee.

“We’ll continue with status quo for the next month, and it will give you time to view it,” said Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.

Tuesday’s meeting also saw the deferral of a suggested $5 surcharge for moving violations first suggested earlier this year as a response to rising gas prices.

Councilman Bob FitzGerald initially proposed the surcharge at the Public Safety Committee earlier this year as a way to stem the drain of rising costs on the police department budget.

But the ordinance was subsequently redirected to Public Safety by the Aurora City Council, as falling gas prices in the latter part of the year made the measure moot.

Discussion during today’s committee meeting will address whether the proposed surcharge should be tabled until substantial increases in fuel prices could again create a problem for the city’s police department.

According to Deputy City Attorney George Zierk, FitzGerald has said he’d be willing to reintroduce the measure if gas prices again trend upward. Councilman and Public Safety Committee member Brad Pierce offered a caveat to the potential fee.

“If it does come back ... I’ve already talked to Councilman FitzGerald about some kind of sliding scale,” Pierce said. ..News Source.. by ADAM GOLDSTEIN, The Aurora Sentinel