By Jackie Coe
The Arizona Republic

Published: March 9, 2009

Registered sex offenders who live in the Valley can expect more frequent knocks on their doors.

The Buckeye Police Department is the latest local law-enforcement agency to start monitoring sex offenders more often than the state-mandated annual visit. Some will be watched as frequently as once a month.

Public-safety officials tout the practice as an effective tool to protect communities. But a prisoners-rights advocacy group calls the policy wasteful, flawed and border-line harassment.

“There has always been a false sense of security with all of this community registration and notification,” said Donna Hamm, founder and CEO of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform. “What happens when the officer shows up at a house and finds out that the offender has moved without notice? Tell me how that protects the public.”

Previously, Buckeye police verified the sex offenders’ addresses once they received them from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Under the town’s new policy, officers check on high-risk offenders every month, moderate-risk offenders every three months and low-risk offenders every six months.

Buckeye police Detective Doug Dodge said the department wants to help prevent registered sex offenders from absconding or leaving without properly notifying authorities. Buckeye has 47 offenders, including two high risk and 14 moderate risk.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of cases come through for failure to register, where the guy registers and then they disappear,” said Dodge, who investigates sex crimes. “Our main motivation is the lag between us knowing they’re gone and us starting to go after them. They’re having four-, five-, six-month head starts, so we need to start checking a little more to make sure that they are where they are supposed to be.

“If they know we’re checking on them, they might be more inclined to stick around and do what they’re supposed to do.”

Valley-wide trend

Several police agencies check on their registered sex offenders more often than the state law requires.

Phoenix, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Goodyear and Peoria monitor their moderate- and high-risk offenders multiple times a year, while Glendale checks on theirs monthly.

“I can’t stop them from leaving, but by me checking more often I know what their activities are,” said Detective Jeff Vallandingham, coordinator of Goodyear’s Sex Offender Accountability Program. “We maintain a lot of information on these people.”

There are roughly 5,300 registered sex offenders in Maricopa County and about 14,500 in Arizona, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

DPS maintains the state’s Registered Sex Offender Web Site based on information it receives from local police. DPS spokesman Harold Sanders lauded theirefforts to keep tabs on sex offenders.

“It is a good thing that agencies are doing that to ensure that the sex offender is in total compliance with all state laws and court mandates that have been placed upon them,” he said. “Protecting the community means they have to be proactive and prevent as much crime as possible, especially those against other persons.”

Balancing act

Hamm fears police may be going too far.

“This sounds like a thinly disguised, almost transparent scheme to keep a thumb on people who are genuinely trying to put their lives back in order,” Hamm said.

She argued sex offenders under probation already are closely watched. Further, she said, policies like Buckeye’s have the potential to infringe on Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

“(Police) need to have at least reasonable suspicion, if not probable cause, to conduct surveillance of a person,” which is a type of search, she said. “They’re not doing crime investigations, they’re not doing crime prevention, so they’re surveilling individuals, private citizens. That is surveillance and it violates the Constitution.”

Dodge said Buckeye’s checkups, during which officers fill out a short address-verification form, are quick and unobtrusive.

“It’s less time-consuming than a traffic stop, so I don’t see any major problems with it,” he said. “We just talk to the guy at the door, answer a couple of quick questions on the form and we’re out of there. … We feel that we’re balancing their rights with the public-safety aspect of it.”

Not all advocacy groups oppose the policy, though.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said a lot of sex-offender registries are inaccurate.

“The police have an obligation to keep track of where these individuals are, so the more accurate the information they have on where these people are, then the safer we’ll be,” she said.

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the agency “applauds that effort” because there isn’t meaningful follow-up for most registered sex offenders around the country.

“Personal verification on a periodic basis is a good thing,” he said. “It’s good for the offender and it’s good for the community. The goal is for these people not to offend again. The goal is for them to become responsible, productive citizens.”

Copyright (c) 2009 The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission.