WA- Level 1 sex felons see better scrutiny

Sad, succes is defined by the act of effectively updating a telephone book, what a price to pay for such menial work. Notice not one mention of crime before or after updating the phone book.

4-12-2009 Washington:

But ‘wildly successful’ address verifications need new state budget funds to continue

For nearly two decades, most of the hundreds of low-risk registered sex offenders living in Pierce County went about their lives unchecked by law enforcement.

Tacoma police and Pierce County sheriff’s detectives focused on the offenders considered most likely to commit new crimes – known as Level 3s – and some of the Level 2 sex offenders.

Because of limited resources, Level 1 offenders, considered the least likely to re-offend, hardly got a look.

That’s changed, thanks to more than $485,000 in state grant money doled out last summer to law enforcement agencies in Pierce County.

With the new money officers have been knocking on doors and verifying that all 2,585 sex offenders – not just the Level 3s – are living where they say they are. They’ve checked all the sex offenders once and are going through the list again. So far, Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department have made 3,306 checks.

Officers throughout the county will continue the checks until the grant runs out in June. Whether they’ll continue checking on all offenders will depend on the outcome of budget talks in the Legislature to see if the money will again be available.

Since the checks started in July, they’ve turned up dozens of people – nearly all Level 1s – not living at the addresses they’d listed when they registered as sex offenders. Those offenders now face criminal charges that carry jail or even prison time.

(eAdvocate Post)


In the first nine months of the grant, prosecutors charged 279 people with failure to register as a sex offender. The grant has enabled local agencies to update 20 years worth of files on low-level sex offenders.

The information is more accurate and current, which saves time and focuses resources during investigations that might involve sex offenders, such as a child kidnapping, said Tacoma police detective Douglas Fuller.

Overall, the program has been “wildly successful,” said Tacoma assistant police chief Jim Howatson.

A statewide task force suggested the program after the kidnapping and slaying of 12-year-old Zina Linnik in 2007. Terapon Dang Adhahn, a Level 1 sex offender living in Parkland, pleaded guilty to charges related to the Tacoma girl’s death.

Obviously this level 1 sex offender was living at the address registered, and nothing about that person's registration led to their capture. Hence, what good is the registry?

Gov. Chris Gregoire put together the task force to look at how authorities handled Adhahn, who had a 1990 conviction for a sex offense. Adhahn went through treatment and got out of prison, and detectives tried at least once to find him but never did.

“One of the premier recommendations was that we not just pretend to hold sex offenders accountable but that we actually do it,” Don Pierce, executive director for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said of the task force.

To make that happen, the Legislature last year set aside $5 million for local authorities to verify that all sex offenders are living where they say they are. State law calls for Level 1 offenders to be checked once a year, Level 2 offenders twice a year and Level 3s three times a year.

Pierce County agencies hope the money will continue after the grant ends in June, but that’s uncertain given the state’s projected budget shortfall of nearly $9 billion.

“It’s the biggest impact on the community for the smallest amount of dollars,” said Tacoma police Sgt. Jen Mueller, who oversees detectives assigned to investigate sexual assaults.

.The governor included $10 million for the program in her two-year, $72.3 billion budget proposal in December.

The House’s operating budget proposal, released last month, also includes $10 million for the program over the next two years. The Senate’s proposal provides $5 million.

“That’s an extreme concern for chiefs and sheriffs in the state,” said Pierce of the sheriffs and police chiefs association, which administers the grant. “Without the program being fully funded, there will be a huge gap in our ability to keep the community safe.”

Statewide, more than 13,250 checks have been done, with officers finding more than 500 offenders who weren’t where they should have been.

The grant money allowed the Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup police departments and the Sheriff’s Department to send officers and detectives out on overtime to verify the addresses, no matter the offender’s classification.

Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department – the two largest law enforcement agencies in the county – have the most offenders to check and have spent the most money doing so.

Tacoma police started the verifications Nov. 1 and have done 1,619, spending $101,258.46 of the grant money.

During the first nine months of the grant, the Sheriff’s Department has made 1,804 address verifications. The department has spent $125,340 of the grant money so far.

NOTE: Using these figures it costs $66.20 per verification. Consider the costs nationally, $39,720,000 to simply verify addresses; totally insane for a program that has not proved its worth in any study whatsoever.

Tacoma police and the Sheriff’s Department now are meeting state sex offender verification laws that set the frequency of address checks.

“We’re in compliance, which has never happened before,” said sheriff’s Capt. Brent Bomkamp.

The grant “has been a godsend,” he said.

The two departments are seeing more offenders than in the past come in when they’re up for renewal and checking in when they change addresses.

“It’s going to be a slow process but it’s the best thing that ever happened,” said Tacoma detective Fuller. “The offender community is beginning to realize they are being checked. They are being accountable.”


SEX OFFENDER CHECKS THEN AND NOW

A state grant has allowed Pierce County’s four largest law enforcement agencies to revamp their address checks on registered sex offenders.


PIERCE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT

Before: A detective sergeant, two detectives and two office assistants tracked 1,100 sex offenders and maintained records on them. The team checked all Level 3 offenders, some Level 2s but none of the nearly 800 Level 1s.

Now: A group of deputies and detectives, working on overtime, checks on all three levels of sex offenders. Officials hope to train all patrol deputies so that in the future they check on Level 1 offenders when they’re able and detectives check on levels 2 and 3.

TACOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: Two detectives handled sex offender registration and verification for the more than 1,100 offenders. They spent most of their time tracking Level 3 offenders, notifying neighborhoods where they move and meeting with the offenders face to face. More than 800 Level 1 offenders in the city were largely left alone.

Now: A group of detectives has been trained to make the checks, which are done on overtime.


LAKEWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: Each patrol officer was given four of the city’s 200-plus Level 1s to check twice a year. Detectives and neighborhood police officers checked on the other 80 or so Level 2s and Level 3s every month.

Now: The grant money allows officers to do assigned checks on overtime, leaving regular work hours to their caseloads.


PUYALLUP POLICE DEPARTMENT

Before: One patrol officer did the address checks on close to 80 sex offenders as his other duties allowed.

Now: Starting in January, the department expanded the roster of who does the checks. Now officers and detectives on overtime do the work. ..News Source.. by STACEY MULICK