Did you ever think that they may be clustering due to the very residency laws you are passing, or is that too obvious for you?
12/30/2011
By Zeke MacCormack
Officials wonder why so many are clustering in the county.
BANDERA — Sex offenders living in Bandera County are facing increased scrutiny by authorities, partly due to concerns about their apparent clustering there.
“We've got a lot of offenders who aren't from here and didn't commit their crimes here,” Bandera County sheriff's Sgt. Jose Barreto said. “What is it that draws those people here?”
Of the 53 offenders he said are registered there, 21 committed their crimes outside Texas, and 22 outside Bandera County.
Investigators fear that some type of coordination is occurring among offenders, possibly through social networking, that resulted in the seemingly high number of sex offenders in the rural county.
- Oh come on, are you folks really this paranoid? I am willing to bet this is NOT the case!
Bandera County has fewer than 21,000 residents, according to the 2010 census.
By comparison, the Department of Public Safety website says 25 sex offenders are registered in Gillespie County, which had a 2010 population of just under 25,000; and 32 are registered in Kendall County, whose population was about 33,000.
No easy answers to the mystery emerged during an unprecedented compliance sweep in early December, in which teams of officers visited the homes of the Bandera County offenders.
“We wanted to make sure they are living where they're supposed to be and are complying with all the conditions (set by the judges),” Barreto said.
Offenders, who normally interact with officers only when they register annually, were surprised when police showed up at their doors unannounced.
“I've never seen that before,” said one sex offender, who asked not to be identified. “They just verified where I live and that my license plates on vehicles are correct.”
The offender is a Bandera County native whose case was heard in Bexar County.
He had no solid theory on why sex offenders seemingly cluster in the county.
“The only thing I can say is it may be because of the openness. They can be away from people. It's possible they think they can hide,” the man said. “Maybe the (authorities) were more lax on it before, but it looks like that's changing.”
- Why don't you go to the source, and ask some of the offenders you are worried about and ask them? I am willing to bet it's due to the residency laws, and having no other place to live.
The sweep by teams of local deputies, U.S. marshals and the attorney general's staff learned seven offenders had died, bringing the number down from 60, according to Barreto, and 23 had a compliance problem.
He said a high number of sex offenders translates into lots of work for those charged with overseeing them.
- Aww, too bad! If you don't like it, fix the draconian laws you are passing!
“Every two years the Legislature boosts the requirements on sex offenders,” he said. “That boosts the workload on investigators and probation departments.”
- Exactly, the legislature like exploiting fear, children and ex-sex offenders to further their own careers, and to "look tough" on crime while actually doing nothing, except wasting time and money, something they are good at.
Besides offenders who are free or on parole after having served out their sentences, many people charged with sex offenses must comply with similar conditions while free on bail and awaiting trial.
Probation officers responsible for overseeing Bandera County also have stepped up their scrutiny of that group since Paul Alamo was hired last spring to lead the community supervision team, which also handles Kerr and Gillespie counties.
“We're switching the organization's culture from being behind the desks to more field work to verify and confirm,” Alamo said. “When we changed that, the sex offender population was like, “They're coming out to my home?'”
The new sex offender monitoring measures include hosting Halloween gatherings for offenders to ensure they didn't encounter children that night, accidentally or otherwise, thereby violating the release terms.
- And Halloween is another moral panic that is not based on facts! Children are more likely to be hit by a car than sexually assaulted by some ex-sex offender, or even someone who isn't a sex offender.
“We don't want to step on their rights,” Barreto said. “I told them, ‘If you do what you're supposed to do by court order, and don't commit any more crimes, you'll have no problem with me.'”
One sex offender, who rejects the idea that other local offenders coordinated plans online to move to the area, said the Halloween event marked the first time he'd laid eyes on the other local offenders.
“I hadn't met any of them until then,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “In effect, they brought us together more than anything else.”
Wow! They're even hosting Halloween parties for the sex offenders. That's mighty cordial of them! It's nice to have get-together's for the growing community. I don't particularly care for their idea of a welcome wagon committee though.
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