NE- Federal Funds Track Sex Offenders. . . For Now

Given many are to register for a lifetime, this now becomes the most expensive address book in history. One which provides no safety for anyone, and remember, not a penny for PREVENTION in any grant. Makes one wonder whether safety is the goal -OR- is it job security!

10-27-2009 Nebraska:

Omaha, NE - To keep families safe, Douglas County Deputies use Federal Grant money to track sex offenders. But what happens when the money runs out?

On Tuesday, Douglas County Commissioners will likely accept more grant money to hold sex offenders accountable. But when it runs out, there's no guarantee they'll get any more.

775 sex offenders. 700 hours of overtime. To knock on doors in neighborhoods isn't cheap. $37 an hour for a rough total of $25,900. Without grant money, the sheriff's office says, tracking sex offenders is limited by county funding.

"We would be able to do what our manpower and our budget holds for," says Lt. Mark Gentile, Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

County commissioners we talked to agree.

"Finding out if that's where there living and going and getting them into the registry would just take longer," says Mary Ann Borgeson, Douglas County Commissioner District 6.

Still, it doesn't mean the board will dip into tax dollars if the grant disappears.

"There cannot be the expectation that property taxes will necessarily replace the grant funds when they do run out," says Clare Duda, Douglas County Commissioner District 7.

"We are always talking with law enforcement and if it was a big, big huge safety concern, they would be bring that to us," says Borgeson.

The overtime grant will run until September 2010. At that point, the sheriff's office will need to reapply for more funding. ..Source.. by Action3News.com