Us
Print
E-mail
Rate
Local law enforcement steps up efforts to track sexual predators
 |
By JUSTIN LANG jlang@lakecityreporter.com
Columbia County Sheriff's Office Detective Ed Seifert drops a thick, white plastic binder on a long conference room table.
Inside is a thick stack of documents made up of pictures, descriptions and maps.
The photos are mugshots of convicted criminals, and the text is pertinent information about each person, such as their address and crimes they've committed. The maps show where they live and what's nearby.
These are the 199 sexual offenders currently living in Columbia County, and it is one of Seifert's duties to help keep track of every one. While some are currently in the county jail - primarily on unrelated charges - most are out living and working among the public, either under supervision (reporting regularly to parole officials), on probation or under community control.
Some are fully "released" meaning they report to no case worker or probation officer. But they are still required to register as a sex offender or predator and notify law enforcement when they move to a new home. Failure to do so is a felony.
"It is almost a full-time job because there are so many in our county," Seifert said.
Seifert said each of them -mostly men and of varying races - have been convicted of a variety of sexual crimes. Their offenses range from sexually assaulting a child to sending pornographic material, featuring children, across the Internet.
"But the bottom line is there is a victim somewhere," he said.
The sheriff's office is implementing a new system for tracking each of the county's offenders, 26 of whom are considered sexual predators by the Florida Department of Corrections. There are detailed legal guidelines for designating someone as a regular sex offender or a predator when they are sentenced for a sex crime. Some of those criteria include the severity of the crime and the age of the victim. For a sexual battery against a child 12 years old or younger, a conviction on that charge would automatically mean someone is designated a sexual predator by Florida's sentencing guidelines.
Sheriff Bill Gootee said a sex offender, predator or not, is typically treated the same by law enforcement.
"We don't put one above the other. To our agency we treat them both the same in knowing where they are and how to keep track of them," Gootee said.
Seifert's binder is a "master book" of all the sexual offenders/predators scattered throughout Columbia County, from areas near the Suwannee River, just south of White Springs, down to Fort White and all places in between. The majority are in or just outside of Lake City.
Five smaller versions of the binders for the five patrol zones of the county were given to deputies Friday.
Starting now, Gootee said each will be used for the deputies on a particular shift to go to the address of each of the sexual offenders and make sure they are living where they say they are, Gootee said.
"Which is a big task," he added.
Currently, Seifert said there are six of the county's offenders who have failed to properly register. He said he suspects most of those have left the state, but warrants are still being sought for their arrest.
Keeping up with the offenders is a daily activity, he said.
Even though such a project would benefit from additional funding and staff, Gootee said, "I want to be proactive in the county and go after this head on and not wait until we have a child abducted or that is missing ... that we have a plan of action."
Gootee said even before the recent killings of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa Springs and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in Ruskin, both allegedly at the hands of sex offenders, the sheriff's office has been working on a way to track those in the county.
Seifert said he also encourages residents to find out who the county's offenders and predators are and where they live, particularly if they have children at their home or children visit them regularly. The easiest way for most is to go to www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sexual_predators/, which allows someone to view all of the registered offenders/predators in the county.
"Know who you are living near, keep an eye out for your neighbor," Seifert said. "We (law enforcement) can't be everywhere at once."
While he said people should make their neighbors aware of a sexual offender in their presence, he said he does not encourage people to confront those who live near them.
If an offender shows dangerous behavior, such as approaching children, Seifert said residents should call law enforcement.
Recently in Marion County, a man printed up flyers with a sex offender's information and added the words, "Child Rapist."
That offender later committed suicide. Seifert said printing and posting the fliers is legal, but not if someone adds their own wording.
Along with the binders, Seifert has also started a more high-tech method for keeping track of offenders.
On his laptop computer is a mapping program that features a detailed street map of the county with small dots representing where a sex offender is living.
The dots are red for predator or yellow for offender. Looking at the screen, they make up pock-marks throughout the county, with many on the east side of Lake City.
Seifert zooms in on some of the areas, able to choose a certain radius at will, and by selecting one of the colored dots, it shows exactly where the offender lives, listing their name, address and exact Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite coordinates. He said the sheriff's office hopes to soon be able to use the program on deputies' laptop computers so the information will be available to them while on patrol.
While not currently available, he said the sheriff's office would like to eventually put such a map on its agency's Web site, so people could see exactly where the county's sex offenders live in relation to them.
For now, people can take an address from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sex offender database and enter it on a Web site like www.mapquest.com to see where an offender lives.
Seifert said despite the recent media attention to sex offenders and the danger they might represent to their community, the sheriff's office has been and will continue to make sure all of those in the county are properly tracked and comply with state law.
"It's front page news now, but tomorrow it might not be," Seifert said.
"We are still going to be on board and doing everything in our power to find out who is in our county."
Inside is a thick stack of documents made up of pictures, descriptions and maps.
The photos are mugshots of convicted criminals, and the text is pertinent information about each person, such as their address and crimes they've committed. The maps show where they live and what's nearby.
These are the 199 sexual offenders currently living in Columbia County, and it is one of Seifert's duties to help keep track of every one. While some are currently in the county jail - primarily on unrelated charges - most are out living and working among the public, either under supervision (reporting regularly to parole officials), on probation or under community control.
Some are fully "released" meaning they report to no case worker or probation officer. But they are still required to register as a sex offender or predator and notify law enforcement when they move to a new home. Failure to do so is a felony.
"It is almost a full-time job because there are so many in our county," Seifert said.
Seifert said each of them -mostly men and of varying races - have been convicted of a variety of sexual crimes. Their offenses range from sexually assaulting a child to sending pornographic material, featuring children, across the Internet.
"But the bottom line is there is a victim somewhere," he said.
The sheriff's office is implementing a new system for tracking each of the county's offenders, 26 of whom are considered sexual predators by the Florida Department of Corrections. There are detailed legal guidelines for designating someone as a regular sex offender or a predator when they are sentenced for a sex crime. Some of those criteria include the severity of the crime and the age of the victim. For a sexual battery against a child 12 years old or younger, a conviction on that charge would automatically mean someone is designated a sexual predator by Florida's sentencing guidelines.
Sheriff Bill Gootee said a sex offender, predator or not, is typically treated the same by law enforcement.
"We don't put one above the other. To our agency we treat them both the same in knowing where they are and how to keep track of them," Gootee said.
Seifert's binder is a "master book" of all the sexual offenders/predators scattered throughout Columbia County, from areas near the Suwannee River, just south of White Springs, down to Fort White and all places in between. The majority are in or just outside of Lake City.
Five smaller versions of the binders for the five patrol zones of the county were given to deputies Friday.
Starting now, Gootee said each will be used for the deputies on a particular shift to go to the address of each of the sexual offenders and make sure they are living where they say they are, Gootee said.
"Which is a big task," he added.
Currently, Seifert said there are six of the county's offenders who have failed to properly register. He said he suspects most of those have left the state, but warrants are still being sought for their arrest.
Keeping up with the offenders is a daily activity, he said.
Even though such a project would benefit from additional funding and staff, Gootee said, "I want to be proactive in the county and go after this head on and not wait until we have a child abducted or that is missing ... that we have a plan of action."
Gootee said even before the recent killings of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa Springs and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in Ruskin, both allegedly at the hands of sex offenders, the sheriff's office has been working on a way to track those in the county.
Seifert said he also encourages residents to find out who the county's offenders and predators are and where they live, particularly if they have children at their home or children visit them regularly. The easiest way for most is to go to www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sexual_predators/, which allows someone to view all of the registered offenders/predators in the county.
"Know who you are living near, keep an eye out for your neighbor," Seifert said. "We (law enforcement) can't be everywhere at once."
While he said people should make their neighbors aware of a sexual offender in their presence, he said he does not encourage people to confront those who live near them.
If an offender shows dangerous behavior, such as approaching children, Seifert said residents should call law enforcement.
Recently in Marion County, a man printed up flyers with a sex offender's information and added the words, "Child Rapist."
That offender later committed suicide. Seifert said printing and posting the fliers is legal, but not if someone adds their own wording.
Along with the binders, Seifert has also started a more high-tech method for keeping track of offenders.
On his laptop computer is a mapping program that features a detailed street map of the county with small dots representing where a sex offender is living.
The dots are red for predator or yellow for offender. Looking at the screen, they make up pock-marks throughout the county, with many on the east side of Lake City.
Seifert zooms in on some of the areas, able to choose a certain radius at will, and by selecting one of the colored dots, it shows exactly where the offender lives, listing their name, address and exact Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite coordinates. He said the sheriff's office hopes to soon be able to use the program on deputies' laptop computers so the information will be available to them while on patrol.
While not currently available, he said the sheriff's office would like to eventually put such a map on its agency's Web site, so people could see exactly where the county's sex offenders live in relation to them.
For now, people can take an address from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sex offender database and enter it on a Web site like www.mapquest.com to see where an offender lives.
Seifert said despite the recent media attention to sex offenders and the danger they might represent to their community, the sheriff's office has been and will continue to make sure all of those in the county are properly tracked and comply with state law.
"It's front page news now, but tomorrow it might not be," Seifert said.
"We are still going to be on board and doing everything in our power to find out who is in our county."
. wrote on Jan 30, 2008 11:01 AM: