Red and blue flags in the neighborhood
At one time, my job involved reading through police and sheriff’s office reports, US Marshal and state law enforcement news releases and rewriting them as news briefs.
While doing this, I found that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has an entire Web site devoted to sexual offenders/predators. From this site it’s possible to sign up for e-mail notifications whenever a registered offender moves into your neighborhood or near any other location ~ like schools, parks you and your kids frequent, the grandparents ~ within a radius of anywhere from a ¼-mile to five miles.
About five years ago I signed up for the program and in that time I’ve received maybe one or two notifications a year… a year. Each one telling me where offender was now living, what the specific crime was, when the conviction was and the sentence, and the type of supervision was ordered upon release.
Recently I received an e-mail saying I needed to renew my account to continue getting these notifications. While updating my information, I decided to also add JM’s new address at college. I expanded the radius from one to the full five miles for both addresses. I did this maybe two months ago.
In that time I’ve received 3-4 notices a week… A WEEK… all for the area around where my still teenage daughter is living. That scares the bejeezus out of me.
From this same Web site, you can search your neighborhood or town and see a map detailing where all the registered offender live in reference to any address you want, again as close as a ¼-mile to five miles out. In my town, there are more little flags than I expected, but compared to the town JM lives in, it’s nothing.
It was difficult to see a blank spot on her map, and it’s not that she lives in a bad neighborhood, the whole town is like that. I think we all would be surprised to see who lives around the corner. There are at least a dozen offenders living inside a mile of my house… one only a couple of blocks away. Once while searching the site I found the father of one of my martial arts students. That totally freaked me out.
I want to keep JM home, to keep her safe, but I know that’s not realistic. She’s a smart girl and doesn’t take risks. She is also not shy about fighting back and getting in someone’s face if she needs to. I don’t want to get all philosophical and talk about how ‘I can’t be with her 24/7′ and I ‘have to let her grow up.’
Hell with that shit! This is scary stuff.
The city where I work changed it’s residential ordinance to limit where a convicted sex offender could live. The way it is now, a registered offender cannot reside within 2,000 feet of a school, park, day care center, bus stop or other place children congregate. This city, area-wise, is very small. That basically outlawed ANY person who has to register as an offender or predator from living inside the city limits. Those already living here were grandfathered in, but I think if they move from their present residence, the new law would be in affect. Seems to me that the goal was to make the entire city a offender/predator free zone.
The pragmatist in me says ‘that’s really harsh.’ There are so many levels, so many degrees of crimes that would require someone to be a registered offender ~ from the 18-year-old who had consensual sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend and her parents pressed charges, to the most heinous of predators. The mom in me says ‘I wish more towns would do that!’
I tried to find what ordinances the town I LIVE in has on the books regarding residential boundaries for sexual offenders and found nothing. Checking the list of registered offenders living near me, I found at least three resided within a couple blocks of an elementary school. All of them were convicted pedophiles. That scares me too.
I don’t know what the answer is regarding limiting where registered offenders are allowed to reside, but I’m not at all forgiving when it comes to sexual assault, no matter what the circumstances. Especially when it comes to protecting my own kids.
OK–we are on some similar cosmic plane. I learned yesterday that a sexual predator moved into the house at the end of our block. His back yard is adjacent to our back yard, our UNFENCED back yard. He’s been convicted of “aggravated indecent solicitation of child; less than 14 yo to commit or submit to unlawful sexual act.” And me with an 11 AND 12 year old. When I showed his pic to my girls, Hailey asked, “If we see him, can we punch him?”
[Tara R.] Angela… that is scary! Hopefully he won’t be living there long. Be safe!
WOW – that is freaky…There is so much to protect our kids from – no matter their age – WOW.
[Tara R.] Laura… when my kids were younger, when I first found this site, I showed them where the offenders lived in reference to our house and we avoided those houses. My daughter was in Girl Scouts and every year would sell cookies. It’s still a very scary place sometimes.
This hits really, really close to home right now, and all I can say is that you also have to be afraid of a lot of people who simply have never been caught. It is a scary world out there. And I have not a whit of tolerance (except in the 18 y/o, 16 y/o consensual scenario you outlined) and don’t think they should be allowed to live. Anywhere.
[Tara R.] Kori… the scary thing is that these are just the REGISTERED offenders. There are 1000s who do not register and are simply ‘out there’ somewhere. No tolerance for adult offenders, no quarter.
I check the state’s Megan’s Law database every couple of months. It’s been mostly status quo. About 25 registered sex offenders in our city of 45,000. Every school year and every time the kids sign up for soccer or baseball or dance, I’m checking it to make sure none of the other kids’ parents — or the coach! — is on it. Scary.
[Tara R.] Patois… as a consequence of the Jessica Lundsford Law (very similar to Megan’s Law) in Florida now any volunteer working with children…such as recreational sports coaches and parent school volunteers… are required to undergo a background check and fingerprinting. It’s a shame that it has come to that, but whatever it takes to protect our children.
This is kinda creepy. And scary, I might add! I think I’m afraid to google my neighborhood. And I’m glad my gals are older now! On a happier note, so GLAD you and yours loved the soup! My SIL (Aunt Julie) is always talking about how she needs a good recipe for Beer Cheese Soup. I think we’ve found one!
[Tara R.] Veggie… I don’t even send JM the notices. She knows what areas to avoid and spends most of her time with friends or at school. I still worry though.
The soup really was awesome. We added some leftover 40 Garlic Chicken and that was really good too. I will be making this recipe again.
I review these sites a few times a year. It seems I am doing it more and more the older the kids get. The further away they get. I was discussing just this thing in a meeting at work (of all places) and someone mentioned just what you did about the 18 year old kid that may not deserve to be lumped in with who may be considered real predators. I said, “I’m sorry for that kid, whoever he or she is, but if the fact that they have made the list makes it easier for some legitimate scumbag to make the list then I’m all for it.” Yep, all for it.
I’m glad JM is a strong kid. They have to be.
[Tara R.] Chuck… yep, all for it here too. It’s incredibly sad that such a list is necessary, but the greater good is what is at stake. If Hubs and I did anything right with our daughter, it was to nurture a strong self-confidence.
I used to go to a site like all the time.. and it gives me chills.. I still visit, but less frequently.. and I would never ever forgive someone that has ever attacked a child/teen/ whom ever in a sexual way..
[Tara R.] Kim… the notification emails, while not welcome, were less stressful than having to continually check the Web site. Now that I’m getting so many because of where JM lives, I don’t know if too much information is the stressful thing. The parent I found who I knew… I never treated him the same again. I think he knew that somehow I found out and he stayed way away from me. I watched him like a hawk whenever he dropped off his son at the martial arts school.
To be honest, I’ve never really looked at those sites. I think it’s more of a “trigger” for me– In a strange way. Xander wasn’t registered, obviously, because I never press charges, but I often wonder if he were still living, what I would have done. The survivor in me says I would have gone through with it, but the coward in me says I would have just let him be.
I cannot imagine the fear a mother feels knowing how close offenders live to their homes/schools/daycares, etc.. It is a SCARY world we live in.. It is one thing I am NOT looking forward to, as far as becoming a mother is concerned..
[Tara R.] Heather… the threats that I can see and fight against I can handle… but not knowing what sort of scary people are out there is hard. When you’re a mom, you do what you have to do to keep them safe. You will do things to protect your kids, that you may not be brave enough to do for yourself.
ps: i just looked and there is a VIOLENT offender living BEHIND us. i am so skeeved out.
[Tara R.] Heather… oh darlin’! Be careful!
The thing that sort of gives me the heebie-jeebies but also soothes my mind at the same time is that my students are so aware of this Internet resource. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re voyeurs or because they want to stay safe, but they’re always online looking these creeps up.
[Tara R.] Melissa B… I would rather know what’s out there, but it is still creepy to see faces I recognize.
I think I might be the only person in the world who knows these resources exist and completely ignores them. My reasoning? I don’t want to become relaxed when in a ’safer’ atmosphere, since what percentage of actual offenders are charged and registered. That’s a much scarier thought to me.
[Tara R.] Zoeyjane… it is scary to think of how many offenders are not registered, have never been prosecuted for any crime or just refuse to keep their status current. The numbers have to be astounding.
I never signed up for the email alerts, but every time I checked, there were WAY too many names! Unfortunately, we don’t know what the crimes were so I’m not sure how helpful it is.
I haven’t checked since we last moved.
[Tara R.] April… I live in such a small town, that one or two notices a year, are reassuring. I think if we were in a large city, like where my daughter is, the sheer numbers would be too depressing. Getting so many for her town is plain scary.