On the Issues
Sexual Offender Investigations
PROBLEM: As you may be aware of, under State law the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department is responsible for the tracking and registration of sexual offenders in our county. Currently there is no detective assigned to FULL-time investigative duties of the more than 250 sexual offenders. This is an overwhelming task. By State statute violent sexual offenders must be physically checked on four times a year, with other sexual offenders being checked on one time per year. The fact that the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department has no full-time deputy assigned to this duty, exposes our children to the potential of becoming a victim of a sexual predator. It is only by luck that our community has not endured the loss of a child by an unchecked sexual offender.
SOLUTION: This problem is extremely simple to fix. If elected I would
immediately assign a detective to head up the Sexual Offender Registry. When a sexual offender would come in, he would
register directly with this detective and be interviewed about
his living arrangements. I would put together a reserve unit task
force in charge of making the visits and reporting directly back to
the detective in charge. I would have an inner-departmental database that would compile all officer interactions with these registered sex offenders. This plan would put the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department in compliance with State law within my first 30 days in office. My solution will take care of the short-term as well as the long-term. Once again, the sheriff’s department has to look at this as a PRIORITY and not just another obligation.