Petition Started to Urge City to Enact Sex Offender Ordinance

In a Jan. 9 article, San Angelo LIVE! explained the statistics of a high number of registered sex offenders within the city limits of San Angelo and the correlation of those statistics to Texas cities that have ordinances with restrictions. The cities with ordinances restricting where registered sex offenders can live had a dramatically lower number of them.  For example, San Angelo has 347 registered sex offenders residing here. League City, a city with the same population, has only 27. League City's ordinance restricting sex offenders is a noticeable difference, and possible correlation.

These statistics were a shock to many San Angelo citizens and it raised the level of concern for some families. An assumption was that residency restrictions were simply a part of the registration process rather than separately placed by the City of San Angelo government. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception.

Leslie Hines, a native of San Angelo who is raising her family here, said she did some research about registered sex offenders after reading the last article and was very disturbed at the numbers. As a result, she has taken it upon herself to begin a petition about enacting a sex offender ordinance in San Angelo.

“I know that placing these ordinances does not guarantee there will be no more sexual assaults, but I do believe it will greatly decrease the number of sex offenders who reside in San Angelo. That requires treatment, intervention and inter-disciplinary response for each offender. As much as I would like for this situation to be black and white, it is not,” she said.

Hines also stated she contacted Councilwoman Elizabeth Grindstaff, Single-Member District 5, and Councilwoman Charlotte Farmer, SMD6, about this issue, which prompted the petition. Previously, Farmer said she is willing to place the registered sex offender city ordinance on the City Council agenda to get direction from her colleagues on the council.

“We have to get at least four votes from council for us to move forward on this to come up with a like or copycat ordinance,” Farmer stated. The next City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

For those citizens who would like sign and/or participate in the petition, Hines said they can visit her petition and digitally sign it.

The Misconceptions of Registered Sex Offenders

Hines is not the only person to have misconstrued the laws surrounding registered sex offenders. This is common because the laws and how they are handled by the justice system are not always clear.

Take for instance the Child Safety Zones. These zones are created, adopted, monitored and imposed by the judges and parole panel, not by local law enforcement. The Parole and Probation Department does not work for the San Angelo Police Department; they work for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Therefore, there is often an issue with communication. However, the issue of communication between SAPD, Tom Green Sheriff’s Office, and the Parole Department is akin to the lack of coordination between FBI and CIA personnel prior to 9/11 and the establishment of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Sgt. Matt Vaughn, San Angelo Police Department Supervisor of the Sex Offender Program, further clarified that, “Local officers are not privy to the express conditions of an offender’s parole, as [those cases] are handled by the parole board. Additionally, local officers cannot enforce parole restrictions; they can merely document incidents in an incident report. It would then be up to the parole officer to review the incident reports and determine if a parole violation has occurred.”

Registered sex offenders are also ranked on a risk-level classification, which is set by the judge and parole or probation department. They assign numeric risk levels to adult or juvenile sex offenders on an individual basis.

Bonnie Slone, CID Investigative Assistant with the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office stated, “If a registrar [parole or probation] has reason to believe that an offender's risk level needs to be increased, the registrar can provide documentation to the DPS, and the offender's risk level will be taken before a panel to determine if the risk level should be increased.”

Each of these levels are based on a point system, derived from the danger the person poses to the community or the likelihood that the person will continue to engage in criminal sexual conduct. These levels range from one, for the most dangerous, to three, for the least dangerous. The numeric risk level assignment impacts the intensity of the offender’s registration requirements, and can determine, among other things, whether or not there is a neighborhood notification requirement.

DPS is required to notify local law enforcement when a registered sex offender moves into an area. If a sex offender is being released from jail, the Parole Division must give pre-release notification to DPS and the local law enforcement of the sex offender's upcoming release. If an offender who has a risk assessment of level one or two, the local law enforcement authority is required to conduct a community notification in the local newspaper. If the sex offender is a level three, a low-threat level, a community notification is not required. However, local schools must be notified about all registrants whose victims were children under the age of 17, no matter what their numeric risk level is.

“I do believe there needs to be some type of criteria determining what methods of notification are used depending on the risk assessment of the offender. Broad notification of all offenders to the community could cause 'alert fatigue.' Meaning this could hinder the public’s ability to decipher the truly dangerous offenders because they are being notified constantly. It would be nice to know if an offender (regardless of risk level) moves into your immediate neighbor via a flyer or postcard," Hines said.

Again, however, the primary method of community notification of sex offenders is an ad in the local newspaper.

“More people prefer to get their information online than through newspapers," Hines stated. "Strictly notifying the public of pre-releases through a newspaper ad is no longer the way to go. Only using the newspaper medium may be acceptable for your low-risk offender releases, but, for your higher offender releases, there needs to be notification of an online source and possibly a television source as well.”

However, the local law enforcement may notify the public in manner deemed appropriate by the authority, included but not limited to: holding a neighborhood meeting, posting notices in the area where the person intends to reside, distributing printed notices to area residents, or establishing a specialized local website.

Slone explained, “I send out a packet before school starts each year with the name, date of birth, address and a picture of the offender to the school where the offender lives in [the] district. If an offender is a high-risk offender, a post card is mailed by DPS to the neighbors when the offender moves to a new address, at the offender's expense.”

If a registered sex offender spends more than 48 consecutive hours, on three or more occasions, in another city or county in Texas, that registrant must register with the local law enforcement authority. Additionally, if a registered sex offender lives outside of Texas, but works or goes to school in Texas, he or she must register as a sex offender in that city or county in which he or she resides, works or goes to school. These persons are also subject to the school notifications, but not the newspaper publication requirements.

Finally, for those individuals who know about sexual acts happening to a child younger than 14 years of age, there is a penalty and charge if they do not attempt to stop or report the incident. It is a Class A misdemeanor to fail to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14.