Posted on 07/06/2005 11:52:50 PM PDT by DaveTesla
PHOENIX - Nearly 1,000 registered sex offenders in Arizona have
disappeared from the radar, causing the Department of Public Safety to add
officers to track them down.
DPS Director Roger Vanderpool said he will move four more officers into the
squad of six whose sole job it is to keep track of the more than 14,000
registered sex offenders in the state.
He's also directing his SWAT and fugitive squads to spend at least one day a
week doing nothing but tracking down these absconders.
And his officers are working with county attorneys to get warrants for each of
he missing fugitives. That not only ensures their names are in a national
database but requires police officers who stop them for some other reason to
make an arrest - something that doesn't always happen now.
Vanderpool said he is particularly concerned with trying to track down the
approximately 130 on the list of the missing who are "Level 3 offenders" -
those considered the most dangerous and the most likely to reoffend. But he
said he'd like them all found.
"We'll find them and bring them back to justice," he said. "And we'll put them
in a place where we can find them," he said, noting it is a felony for someone
who is required to register to fail to do so, or to move without notifying
authorities.
But that goal may not be realistic: About three quarters of those on the list
have been missing since at least 1996.
"We may not find them," said Val Biebrich, the DPS community notification
coordinator. But he said the changes will put "a mechanism in place" to make
it easier to find them.
Laws in Arizona and most other states require people who have been convicted
of certain sexual offenses to register with local police.
Gov. Janet Napolitano said those laws now add about 1,000 people a year to
the list.
Vanderpool said those kinds of numbers have made it impossible for the six
full-time staffers to keep track of everyone.
"You do the math," he said. "It's pretty phenomenal across a state this size."
And Vanderpool, who became DPS director three months ago, said the unit
has never really been staffed enough to keep up with the workload.
The report that nearly 1,000 are missing was news to Sen. Barbara Leff, R-
Paradise Valley. She was involved in writing legislation limiting where sex
offenders can live. She said she was surprised state officials had no
answer at a press conference Tuesday to the question of how the list got so
long.
Where these offenders are - or at least should be - is hard to determine.
The DPS' Web site lists 278 absconders who have been required to register
since 1996, when the law was tightened. Of those, 118 were convicted in
Maricopa County, and another 35 in Pima County.
Pinal County logged 13, with 10 from Mohave County and smaller numbers
from other counties.
The figures also include 57 people from other states who didn't keep up their
addresses when they moved to Arizona.
Vanderpool said the DPS isn't getting more money. Instead, he is identifying
sworn police officers in his agency "performing jobs we feel can be fulfilled
by civilian personnel or utilizing retirees or volunteers."
Biebrich said the additional staff members will do more than search databases.
He said they will be working with prosecutors in each county to get
indictments against each of the missing offenders.
That, by itself, isn't the total answer. "Some people are very good at staying
under the radar," Biebrich said.
The state maintains a Web site with the names and pictures of 278 of the
missing. Biebrich said the balance are those who failed to register or report
whose offenses date from before mid-1996, when state law was changed to
specifically require communities to be notified when a sex offender moves into
the neighborhood.
A 20-year old guy who gets it on with his 15-year old girlfriend would qualify.
Very easy problem to solve. Put a bounty on them! Post their pictures and their last known address and just sit back and wait for prople to start dragging them in to police stations. $500.00 per pervert. Saves the police for other work and who cares about their rights they have already been convicted.
With this many on the loose there's lots money to be made.
Alexandria says in a sing-song voice, "I'll never tell, no I'll never tell..."
They probably went to Iowa to register to vote after dem Governor Vilisak restored their "rights."
Check the Mexico side of the border!
Oh, I forgot...THOSE people only break our laws to pick lettuce and do "the jobs that AMERICANS won't do"!
Gloves are off today, folks...anyone think the attacks in England was a direct result of loose immigration?
Don't forget that guy who was recently marked as a Sex Offender because he was yelling at a youngster who ran in front of his car. These statistics may be fatally flawed.
Well...I think that we must seriously reconsider the sex offender registry system's effectiveness.
I'm in FL and check our state's site regularly.
Guess what?
Joseph Duncan who is being held in the kidnapping of Shasta Groene traveled to Florida more than once. How in the heck were we supposed to know that such a violent sexual predator was here?
I doubt many people were really reading his blog before his most recent arrest.
"A 20-year old guy who gets it on with his 15-year old girlfriend would qualify."
A 20 year old guy with a 15 year old girlfriend should be knocked in the head. Go get you a GF that is 18 or older. And any parent of a 15 year old child that lets them date a 20 year old should be knocked in the head too.
Homosexual Agenda/Moral Absolutes Two-fer Ping.
I'm pinging both lists because at least one third of all child molestation are perpetrated by homosexuals; i.e. is homosexual in nature; whether the scum call themselves "gay" or not.
Some crimes called sex crimes are a 20 year old man with a 15 year old girlfriend. While that is definitely immoral, it is in another world than adults or teenagers who violate a child.
It is a crime that sex offenders such as those who sexually molest children are not executed. Child molestation and forcible rape used to be capital crimes. They should be. It is mind boggling that liberals have so much misplaced compassion for the perpetrators of horrible crimes, and none for the innocent victims. Is not our world turning upside down?
That's what happens when eternal moral absolutes are rejected, and discarded in favor of the whims cooked up in the minds of fallible human beings.
Freepmail me if you want on/off either ping list.
a 20 year old guy who "gets it on" with his 15 year old girlfriend should be tried and executed for raping a child.
Sorry I haven't responded for so long. I DO !! appreciate your efforts.
God bless, and may you have "oil" in your lamp these days.
"I wonder where they're buried"
That was my hope also!!
Thank you for your kind words. The truth is the truth, whether people like it/see it/admit it/live it or not.
And the inner peace and security and happiness that come from sticking close to the truth and its Author far surpass anything the world has to offer!
I'm not sure about that one. The current state of endemic sexual immorality is so far gone that a whole lotta people would be dead.
But I do posit that mature men who have sex with underage girls should be publicly beaten. Public pain and public shame are the only punishments that will work. Societal disapproval is necessary, and the girl shouldn't get off scot free either.
When kids grow up in fatherless homes, or other kinds of broken homes, they often have no moral compass and no foundation in their lives. Children need a father and mother who set boundaries and rules and are good examples. It pains my heart to see how so many children are raised now, and what becomes of them.
Another side point is that in previous generations early marriages were common, and were generally as successful as any other marriages. Now kids are made to feel that if they marry at all it should be in their late 20s, and they should have a series of sex partners beforehand.
But seeing as that whole lotta people were all child molestors this would be bad how?
At a minimum it would chill the whole premarital sex with minors thing pretty quick.
I would make a distinction first of all between homosexual molestation and heterosexual, and second between an adolescent who is at least physically mature and a younger child who is not.
I don't know; I see your point. I'd go for the public caning with a rattan cane for the 20 yr old man and 15 yr old girl, and execution for any same sex molestation. If the man is considerably older, and/or the girl any younger than 15, and/or if there was ANY force involved, execution.
How does that sound?
I'd agree to that. With the one addition that the 20 year old is banned from any association with the 15 year old forever.
One thing to keep in mind is what I mentioned up the thread - that in recent history, (and throughout human history) early marriages were common. For some reason (feminism has a lot to do with it) kids are made to feel like losers and fools to marry before their late 20s. As a result (also a result of the influence of explosively hedonistic culture) so many young people have illicit sexual relationships instead of thinking of a lifetime marriage. So by the time they think of a life partner (if they do) they're already so used up with promiscuity that their hearts are hardened, they've become cynical, so-called "worldly wise" but love-blind, that it's hard for them to become faithful, loyal husbands and wives.
Young marriage is not necessarily a bad thing. Marriage needs to be seen as a lifelong commitment, not just a bunch of fireworks that die down, and then you look for another blowout experience.
It's a long topic.
Now if one commits a crime like rape, murder, running over someone one, the underground kicks in immediately and quickly removes the scum back to Mexico or someplace where they are hidden until the furor dies down.
Arizona has the same underground, and these people will never be seen again, except maybe in my area.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.