This morning’s Journal Gazette has an article about the sex offender registry in Indiana and how residents can keep informed when an offender moves into their neighborhood.

Allen County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Jeff Shimkus said the addresses for offenders can change daily and unless residents were checking every day, they may not know that a sex offender has moved into their neighborhood.

One of the reasons it’s important for Hoosiers, and in particular parents, to keep informed about sex offenders in their neighborhoods is that sex offenders will likely commit another offense, Carter said.

Many of the offenders found in Allen County have two or more offenses on their record, according to the county’s sex offender Web site.

 

An offender has lived near my home for the past several years.  We have been very fortunate by having a county deputy that lives about four doors down from the offender who has kept a close watch on him.  Not close enough though. 

The offender approached my son and his best friend on the beach at the park across the street from the offender’s home two summers ago.  My son’s best friend is the deputy’s son.  The offender knew who both boys were.  Pretty brazen wouldn’t you say? My daughter was babysitting and was very upset by his approach.  She gathered the kids up, took them home and called the deputy.  The situation was handled immediately.  We were lucky because our kids had been made aware of who this gentleman was due to the registry. I strongly believe the registry did indeed keep our boys from becoming another statistic.

This particular offender moved about three weeks ago.  I have kept an eye out to see where he moved to. He has 30 days to register his new address.  He registered yesterday.  I recognized the address as the home of one of my daughter’s friends who had just moved.  I know several of his new neighbors.  Two of them are school teachers.  I am printing off his information and mailing it to them. 

 

At a cost of $12,000 a year paid by the state, if the Web site prevents “even one heartache,” it’s worth the cost, Carter said.

Along with giving addresses for convicted sex offenders, the state’s Web site can tell Hoosiers whether a sex offender works nearby, Carter said.

I as a parent fully appreciate the website and also feel as if it has saved my child personally.

Read the full article here.

Posted by Lucy.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 7:25 am and is filed under Current Affairs, Indiana Wants Me, Sex Offenders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.