Police department creates sex offender facebook for local schools
MEG KINNARD
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Local law enforcement officials in South Carolina are required to notify schools and child care centers when a registered sex offender moves into the area, but one police department is going a step further to make sure educators know their neighbors.
The Darlington police department is in the midst of putting together a booklet of pictures and information about the county's sex offenders, including addresses and the crimes they have committed, to be distributed to area schools.
Darlington police Lt. Danny Watson said he thinks his agency may be the first in the state to take on this type of project. He hopes to have the books to educators next week.
"If we keep one person from being abducted, if we keep one person from being violated, we have a small victory," Watson said.
The idea for the manuals has been discussed for several years, Watson said, and wasn't spawned by the case of Kenneth G. Hinson. But the release of the books comes just three months after Hinson, 47, a registered sex offender, was arrested in Darlington County and charged with sexually assaulting two teenage girls in an underground room behind his home.
There are currently 148 sex offenders registered in Darlington County, according to the State Law Enforcement Division's Web site.
The Internet database doesn't always get the information out, said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police.
"I would encourage local people to use the method that they feel is most efficacious in their area," said Pasco, a retired federal law enforcement officer.
He said this is the first he has heard of any police agency distributing a sex offender roster exclusively to schools.
"If you saw somebody just walk by on the street, who was otherwise acting normally, that person could be a sex offender, and you'd have no way of knowing," Pasco said. "With something like the book, you'd know in advance."
Schools and child care centers are notified by law enforcement if registered sex offenders are moving within a half-mile, but other than that, there are no geographic restrictions on sex offenders, said Celeste Proffitt, who runs the registry for the State Law Enforcement Division.
But at least one civil rights advocate is worried the books might unnecessarily prejudice those on the state's registry.
"It plays into the 'stranger danger' myth around sexual assault, that the majority of sexual assaults happen by someone who's waiting in the bushes, waiting to jump out and attack our children," said Sara Totonchi, public policy director for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights.
Totonchi said 80 to 90 percent of crimes against children occur by someone the child knows.
Totonchi is part of a lawsuit filed to stop a new law in Georgia that would restrict convicted child molesters from coming within 1,000 feet of a number of locations, including churches, schools, child care centers and school bus stops.
Such dramatic action would make it hard for anyone on that state's registry to be an effective parent, she said.
That's not law enforcement's concern, Watson said.
"When you made that mistake, you pretty much brought that stigma on yourself," he said. "I think any person with common sense would realize, I do not want to go where I am not wanted."
Audrey Childers, spokeswoman for the Darlington County School District, said school officials were appreciative of this service from law enforcement.
"It's another level of protection for our students," she said. "You can never be too prepared."
That's the goal, Watson says.
"Forewarned is forearmed," he said. "That's why it's so important for us to get this information out."
Community Watch comments:
"Forewarned is forearmed" - Those who know that something is coming are better prepared to face it than those who do not know.
We agree completely.
Let's help keep each other safe and aware.
