Web site pinpoints high-risk sex offenders

By Allison Peryea
Seattle Times staff reporter

	KARIE HAMILTON / AP State Rep. Al O'Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace, right, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, center, and state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, unveil the state's new Web site yesterday that lets Washingtonians locate and identify sex offenders in their neighborhoods.
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OLYMPIA — Law-enforcement groups yesterday unveiled a new Web site that lets Washingtonians locate and identify sex offenders in their neighborhoods.

Operated by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the site includes data on 5,000 to 6,000 high-risk sex offenders, who are required to report their addresses to the police, said Webmaster Elizabeth Damouni.

Users can search the site by address or offender name to learn the names, criminal histories and addresses by block number of level II and level III offenders considered most likely to re-offend. Offenders' photographs and other identifying information, such as age, height and eye color, are also available.

The days when a kid could "grab a sack lunch and go find an adventure" in the neighborhood are over, said King County Sheriff Dave Reichert. "This is a tool to protect our children from some of the most dangerous and violent predators lurking in our communities," he said.

Some experts and police worry that easy availability of sex-offender locations could lead to vigilantism, forcing sex offenders to move to new places and possibly making them more dangerous.

The site provides maps showing offenders located in a neighborhood or near a given address, a function offered in only a few other states' sites of this type, Damouni said.

Several counties already post sex-offender databases online, said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn. The statewide site, however, "is a coordinated effort that permits everyone in the state to find sex offenders on the blocks where they live."

Roach sponsored last year's legislation to provide state money — $250,000 every two years — to create and maintain the site. Megan's Law Group, an organization named after the 1996 federal law requiring public notification of released sex offenders' whereabouts, also donated $650,000.

Megan's Law was named after a 7-year-old New Jersey girl, Megan Kanka, who was killed by a child molester who had moved across the street from her family without their knowledge.

Though supporters say parents can use the database to identify threats to their children's safety, Robert Longo, a South Carolina child sex-abuse prevention and treatment counselor and author, says such Web sites lull people into a false sense of security.
 
"There is no significant decrease in sex crimes or an increase in the number of people caught who are committing them," said Longo, who works at the New Hope Treatment Centers.

Sex predators can easily change their appearances and might commit crimes in new areas to escape identification, Longo said.

As of Jan. 31, there were 18,055 registered sex offenders in the state, said Toni Korneder, the State Patrol's criminal-history records manager. About a third are the higher-risk level II and level III offenders. Another 1,684 failed to verify their addresses with the sheriff's office of the county in which they reside.

Seattle police Detective Bob Shilling, who oversees the city's 1,382 registered sex offenders, said some of the most serious offenders are difficult to track because they are homeless.

Shilling worries about people who might try to take justice into their own hands.

"It definitely increases the likelihood sex offenders will re-offend if they are chased from place to place instead of getting treatment," said Shilling, who recommended that people simply use the database information to take precautions and report suspected misbehavior to authorities.

Reichert preached "vigilance rather than vigilantism." Roach said: "The number of people potentially made safer outweighs the one or two incidences that may occur."

Allison Peryea: 1-360-943-9882 or aperyea@seattletimes.com

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