OffenderWatch making a difference in Tri-parishes

The first year under the state’s new centralized sex offender database has improved the accuracy of registering and tracking offenders, according to state and local law enforcement agencies.

Since the OffenderWatch program began last August, the Louisiana State Police said the number of unregistered or noncompliant sex offenders has been reduced by 35 percent.

“Previously, there were discrepancies in the reporting system because the state and local sheriff’s offices had their own databases,” said State Police Sgt. Markus Smith. “The law requires sex offenders to register with the State Police, the sheriff’s office and municipal police department if necessary, but that wasn’t always happening.”

OffenderWatch pools all sex offender information from the state Police and local law enforcement agencies into a single database. Each entity has its own portal to enter offender information. Any information submitted to that database is available online to the public within 15 minutes.

“It’s great. Through OffenderWatch I have access to all registered sex offenders in the state,” said Deputy Dawn Domangue, with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office’s Domestic Violence/Sex Offender Division. “Agencies can communicate with each other. If offenders are coming from one parish to another we let each other know. We’re able to track way easier.”

OffenderWatch is updated instantaneously as offender addresses and other information is entered. The public can search any address in a parish or the state and see real-time information on the publishable offenders within a specified radius of the address.

Residents can go to http://www.icrimewatch.net/louisiana.php and click on the parish of interest to search the sex offender registry.

The statewide sex offender database has grown from approximately 7,000 to nearly 9,500.

In Terrebonne Parish, there are currently 387 sex offenders, of which 48 are noncompliant. Lafourche Parish has 197 offenders with 12 noncompliant; and St. Mary Parish has 120 offenders with two noncompliant.

The state database went from over 3,000 non-compliant offenders to 964 non-compliant offenders today. Of those, 667 are active cases and 297 are inactive because the offender is incarcerated or living out of state. There are open cases on unregistered offenders in Louisiana.

“A lot of different agencies came together to streamline the registration process and it has worked out well,” said detective Artis Jackson of the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office sex offender unit.

Local sheriff’s offices agree OffenderWatch has been beneficial, particularly since they have so few deputies committed to tracking sex offenders.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Accountability Program (SOAP) has five deputies. Terrebonne has four deputies, and right now Jackson is solo in St. Mary; however, he expects to receive additional manpower this month.

“Most departments don’t have a large contingency of officers to work sex offenders because it’s a lot of resources,” said Lt. Dennis Gordon, who runs SOAP. “But the OffenderWatch, it makes it quite easy.”

With the OffenderWatch program, the state Department of Corrections also pre-registers sex offenders within 10 days of their release from prison. Upon release, the offender has three days to register with the parish sheriff’s office in which he will be living. If the third day passes without registration, the offender is considered noncompliant and efforts are made to locate the offender, including issuing an arrest warrant.

“(Sex offenders) have to provide their intended address before they leave prison and prove that they live at that address – identification or a utility bill – once they get out,” Smith said.

Offenders must register all home addresses in the parish and city they might live in 30 days out of the year whether it’s consecutive or aggregated. Also, they have to give vehicle information, where they work or attend school, and Internet account information.

A released sex offender whose victim was 13 years or younger cannot live within 1,000 feet of school, daycare centers, parks, playgrounds or recreation facilities while on probation. Depending on the nature of the crime, the residential restriction could be removed upon completing probation or remain in place for life.

Despite this, officials say sex offenders are not clustered in particular areas but widespread through the parishes.

“There are a few more in certain areas just because most renters won’t allow them,” Domangue said. “So they stay where landlords are willing to take on the responsibility of allowing them to rent.”

Paroled offenders pay a yearly $60 Sex Offender Registry Technology Fund fee to the state. Part of the collected fees goes to the individual sheriff’s offices based on the number of offenders they have registered and have to monitor.

In addition, they also pay for the printing and mailing of notification cards to residents within a certain radius of the offender’s address.

“Within city limits, it is three-tenths of a mile radius, and the rural areas, a one-mile radius,” Domangue said. “That is at total cost to the offender. It depends on the radius and how many cards have to go out. It can range anywhere from $110 to I’ve had some in excess of $500.”

How often an offender has to register depends on their determined risk of committing a similar crime. Offenders in Tier I register once a year for 15 years. Tier II register every six months for 25 years, and Tier III register every three months for life.

“We give them an update form stating when is the next time they have to register,” Jackson said. “I have guys who work offshore. They let me know when they’re going and if they’ll be out when their next registration date comes up. I tell them you need to register before you leave, not when you come back.”

A first conviction for noncompliance is a two- to 10-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine. A second conviction carries up to five to 20 years and a $3,000 fine.

Since January, Jackson has arrested 23 noncompliant convicted sex offenders, nearly 50 percent more than all of 2008.

Gordon said he has only arrested eight noncompliant offenders this year, and the number of arrests has dropped significantly over the last three years.

“You’re still going to have those people who for whatever reason don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s their responsibility to keep up with it. We don’t send out any notices or make phone calls to them. It’s incumbent on them to do that.”

The departments hope in the coming year they can bring in deputies and go out into the community to do more address verifications.

“We have access to some funding. It’s just situating things to get the extra help,” Domangue explained. “I had an extra deputy that came in over the summer. We still feel like we’re in the beginning stages, doing the best now with what we have and hopefully we’ll be able to expand as it goes on.”

“I think it’s going to be looking better starting next month because we’re going to get a whole new section just to track these people,” Jackson said. “We’re moving in a positive direction at a slow pace, but we’re getting there.”

Deputy Dawn Domangue, one of four members of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Domestic Violence/Sex Offender Division, mainly verifies some 400 sex offenders’ addresses by phone. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF