New rules for sex offenders put pressure on local police
April 2, 2006
by James Boyd, HeraldTimesOnline.com
Submitted by Linda Brady, District 7

BLOOMINGTON- New changes in the way convicted sex offenders live after being released from incarceration won't take effect until July 1, but they already have at least one local law enforcement officer questioning how the state is going to come up with the funding and staffing to enforce them.

Monroe County's 132 registered offenders will face new restrictions on where they can live, how their personal information can be accessed by the public, and in some cases, even what they wear.

Gov. Mitch Daniels signed several bills into law late last year that will take effect this summer.

Monroe County Detective Sgt. Brad Swain, who helps track down offenders who have failed to register and committed other violations, welcomed the new legislation, but wants to know where the money's going to come from to help put it into action.

"This diverts office staff from every sheriff's office in the state to devote time to submit information to the databases and to ensure all complaints get followed up on," Swain said.

"It's additionally going to require some officers to personally visit some addresses (to ensure offenders are either at the right residence or to verify if they're at the wrong residence). These are all unfunded mandates and we've got to squeeze in all our other duties without any help from the state."

Changes in monitoring

For the most serious offenders - those deemed "sexually violent predator" - the new regulations will require them to be monitored for the rest of their lives with Global Positioning Systems.

As defined by Indiana code, a sexually violent predator is one who suffers from a "mental abnormality or a personality disorder" that makes them likely to commit another offense.

Come July 1, however, any offender over the age of 18 who commits an offense against anyone under the age of 12 will also be considered a sexually violent predator, in addition to any offender who used deadly force, a weapon, or caused serious bodily injury during the commission of the offense.

Only two convicted Monroe County sex offenders currently use the GPS system, which costs the county about $3,000 per unit, said Jeff Hartman, supervisor of the Community Alternative Supervision Program. One estimate by state officials says lifetime monitoring of violent predators could cost the state as much as $380,000 per year.

Other changes to the law include the requirement for offenders to register as such before they are released from incarceration.

The responsibility to register primarily lies on the offender.

But now they will have to register before being released, allowing their pictures, addresses, and work locations to be immediately posted online, available to anyone with an internet connection.

There used to be three databases, two public and one private, containing sex offender information. The new legislation has merged all three into one publicly available database, run by Indiana Sheriff's Association and the state's Attorney General office.

Monitoring

Contrary to public belief, current offenders aren't monitored on a 24-hour basis.

Monroe County - along with the majority of other counties throughout Indiana - use what's called a "passive" monitoring system.

Offenders have a monitoring device attached to them at all times throughout the day.

If those offenders are allowed out to work or for school, they have to place one of the monitoring devices into a docking station that then uploads data to a computer in Anderson, Hartman said.

However, certain geographic zones - near where the offender's victim resides, for example - are monitored so that if the offender enters into that space, a signal immediately is sent to Anderson, and county officials are notified the offender has been somewhere he shouldn't have.

Chief Probation officer Linda Brady said the firm Monroe County uses to perform monitoring duties will launch a test soon of an "active" monitoring system, one that provides real-time information on any offender's location.

"I'm not a fan of GPS monitoring," Brady said. "I feel like it gives a false sense of security to the public."

The cost of running an active system will be far greater, Brady said, not just with the electronic components, but the staffing issues as well.

"If you go to active, there's going to be an expectation, I would think, by the public, that someone's going to be watching this monitor 24/7," Brady said.

Enforcing

Ken Bugler is responsible for keeping track of the 54 registered sex offenders currently on probation in Monroe County. A 16-year probation veteran, Bugler, the county's adult probation supervisor of sex offenders, assumed the role six years ago.

"It was my choice," Bugler said last week. "From a standpoint of public safety, I'm out in the field all the time. That's something we don't do with our other officers."

He doesn't have a set schedule, and he visits offenders via appointments and unscheduled stops.

"I'm out there daytime, nighttime, weekends," Bugler said. "Sometimes I'll drop by someone's house to make sure they're behaving themselves, and then move on."

It was on one of those stops a few years ago that he found a Valentine's Day card to a convicted offender from a child. It was later determined the offender had been molesting the child, Bugler said.

People like Bugler and Swain will also be in charge of making sure certain offenders are well within the boundaries of what legislation allows.

Certain convicted offenders will be prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school property, public park, or youth program center and/or one mile from the residence of their victim.

But those standards are already commonly applied to offenders as conditions of their probation or parole, Swain said.

Bugler has a measuring wheel that marks the distance between an offender's residence and any possible violating location, but said he's rarely had to use it.

"There have been seven or eight times I've found the offender to be within the 1,000 feet," Bugler said, "and they've had to move."

Two men currently under Bugler's watch do live within 1,000 feet of a school. Both owned homes within that distance before they were convicted, and a judge allowed both to stay.

"In order to do that, the judge has to write a letter to the school letting them know they have a sex offender living within 1,000 feet of the school," Bugler said.

Preparing for Change

Authorities admit they've yet to go over all of the changes that will take effect this summer, but they've got three months to figure out all the intricacies of the new laws.

Typically, when new legislation gets passed, state government sends out summaries of all the laws to alert local officials of the changes they need to be aware of.

"There is sound reasoning (here in the new laws)," Swain said, "but eventually some other staffs are going to have to come down to help. These are beginning to become full-time duties."

Legal changes

Among the changes that will take effect on July 1:

* The Department of Corrections can now reduce good time credit for a sex offender who doesn't participate in a treatment program or who doesn't register before being released from incarceration. Inmates typically earn one day toward their sentence with every day served, generally reducing their sentence by half with good behavior.

* Offenders classified as "sexually violent predators" must notify law enforcement if they will be out of their primary residence for more than three days.

* The three previous online offender databases have been merged into one, available to the public at: www.insor.org

* Violent predators who commit an offense after June 30, 2006, must be placed on lifetime parole when released, and monitored for life via a GPS tracking system.
* Limits an offender from residing within 1,000 feet of a school property, public park, or youth center, and in some cases, within a mile of their victim's residence.