Sex offenders living in community raise concerns

The Megan’s Law website reports over 300 sex offenders living in Imperial Valley making it a concern for residents.

Brandon Alquijay said, “Not only for the big female population here, but also for children, children of all ages.”

John Cabrera said, “If these men or women are not checking in with their parole officer or probation officers, my question is, who’s dropping the ball, that’s my biggest concern.”

Alex Cardenas said, “Child safety should be an absolute priority for everyone, not only for officials, law enforcement, but our schools.”

We asked the local authorities to help us understand how sex offenders come to live among us, how dangerous that situation is, and what we can do about it.

Commander Brett Hauser, Brawley Police Department, said Brawley has 23 registered sex offenders.

“Of those eight of them are transients or homeless, we have zero sexual violent predators, so the most serious of them identified. We currently have six that are in violation,” Hauser said.

He said sex offenders are placed in three categories.

“Tier One being the none-violent offenders. And those would include misdemeanor offenses, annoying, molesting children or other victims. Tier Two would involve the most serious and possibly even violent offenses.”

Tier two could be for non-force sex crimes against underage victims.

“Tier Three is the most serious, these are the violent offenses, the ones that scare us,” Hauser said.

Tier Three is also for repeat offenders, sexual acts committed by force.

Sex offenders living in any areas are required to register with the local authorities where they reside in.

“They’re mandated to come to the local police department of the city in which they live, or reside in, as in the case of the homeless and register with this department,” Hauser said.

Those who don’t report in regularly are said to be in violation.

“That’s a separate violation for failing to comply with the sex registration requirements and they can be charged with that as a crime,” Hauser said.

Lt. Jimmy Duran, I.C. Sheriff’s Office, said, “In the case of the sheriff’s office, any individual who registers then gets audited at random sometimes. Or sometimes once a year, that all depends on the type of violation that the individual committed. Serious convictions demand that we pay more attention to these individuals. And we do so, we insure that we do more follow-ups with these individuals.”

He said the courts determine where offenders can live depending on their terms of release.

“They’re the ones that determine who can live near a school or who can’t, but there’s always a blanket approach on some of these cases, they cannot live within a hundred yards of any school,” Duran said.

He explained what to do if anyone knows of a sex offender living nearby.

“If you encounter a known sex offender and you believe that person shouldn’t be in a certain location, you can always contact the sheriff’s office or the agency of jurisdiction to confirm your suspicion,” Duran said.

Detective Armando Orozco, Calexico Police Department, said some offenders are now living across the border or have been deported.

“There’ll be some sort of record of his deportation. A form has to be filled out, sent to the department of justice, so that way they can be removed from our data base. We’ve actually done follow-up on those. And they actually don’t live at those addresses. They just decided to use the Calexico address as an address,” Orozco said.

Sadly, authorities said one of the biggest threats against kids comes from within the home.

“Almost 90% statistically-speaking of offenders that commit these sex offenses are either family members, friends of families or close acquaintances,” Hauser said.

He said social media is another potential threat if not used properly or supervised.

“Many of the predators that are out there utilize those resources or those mediums, chat rooms, some of the most popular social media sites, to try to make contact with some of these youth,” Hauser said.

Hauser said communication between parent, child and law enforcement is key to public safety.

“It’s not just about bike helmets anymore. It truly is about knowing the behavior of people around you. Have an open line of communication with your kids. Don’t let taboos of talking about things of the sexual nature keep you from having those conversations. It’s important that you have them, that your kids are armed to make the good decisions when those moments come,” Hauser said.