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The following information was provided to the
Longview Daily News and appeared as an article in their 08/14/04 edition.
Web site charging
for info about sex offenders
Officials: Be leery of
'nonprofit' because its numbers are
inaccurate and the correct info is free on state Web site
By Leslie Slape
The Daily News
Law enforcement
agencies have a duty to inform the public at no charge when a registered sex
offender settles in a neighborhood.
An organization is now offering the information for
a price.
"Somebody's trying to make a buck off people's
fears," Sheriff's Capt. Mark Nelson said Friday.
He said the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office has
received eight to 10 complaints about the United States Protection and Care
Society, which calls itself "a nonprofit organization dedicated to
increasing the safety of children and families through awareness
campaigns."
"There is an automated phone call that comes
in and the message says there is a sex offender living in your neighborhood,
and to get more info you go to this Web site," he said. "You pay
them $19.95 and they tell you about the RSOs (registered sex offenders) in
your neighborhood."
Nelson said the sheriff's office did a test check
on the Web site and the local information wasn't accurate. A request for a
sample offender in the 98632 Longview ZIP code brought up a photo of a Level
III offender that the society miscategorized as Level II, he said. The
society also listed 44 sex offenders in Longview, when there actually are
505, he said.
He said the county has 47 offenders who have been
assessed as Level III -- considered the most likely to reoffend -- and that
the society may have mistakenly used that figure for its total.
The Daily News was unable to contact the society.
The Web site (http://www.uspacs.org/) states that
for a membership fee of $19.95, the society will send out monthly updates of
sex offenders living in the member's ZIP code and a "red alert" if
a sex offender moves into the member's neighborhood. In addition, members
can browse through a database listing more than 300,000 sex offenders around
the country.
All that information is already available online,
Nelson said. The Washington State Sex Offender Information Center (http://ml.waspc.org)
has a searchable database.
"You can search by county, city, ZIP code,
street name or offender's name," Nelson said as he typed in the
Longview ZIP code and brought up a map.
Red and blue dots indicate the location of Level
III (red) and Level II (blue) RSOs. Level I offenders, the least likely to
reoffend, are not listed on the map. Holding the cursor over a dot brings up
a name. Clicking on the name brings up a photo and details of the offender.
The society's warning that "there's a sex
offender living in your neighborhood" is likely to be true, he said --
but the majority of sex offenders are at a low risk to reoffend, so there's
no point in panicking.
"For the most part, if you get to know folks
in your neighborhood, you'll probably find there are people out there who
you like, who are not criminals," he said. "They watch out for
your stuff, you watch out for theirs. That makes for strong communities,
strong neighborhoods, and in areas where you have strong neighborhoods, you
have positive changes. ...
"We'd much rather see that type of interaction
going on than people feeding off the fears of others and trying to make a
buck."
NOTE:
If you have a complaint about receiving this type of call, the Attorney
General's Consumer Protection Office would like to hear from you.
Their number is: 800-551-4636
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