Sheriff Brown and Local Law Enforcement Chiefs Announce Offender Watch Program

Sheriff's Main Jail Facility, Goleta - April 30th, 2008

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown in conjunction with Santa Maria Police Chief Dan Macagni, Guadalupe Police Chief George Mitchell, Lompoc Police Captain Larry Ralston, Santa Barbara Police Lieutenant Armando Mantel, District Attorney Christie Stanley, and Probation Chief Patty Stewart announced the launch of the Offender Watch Program, at a press conference held earlier today at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

Starting today, Santa Barbara County residents will be able to access a citizen friendly, easy to use, Santa Barbara County sex offender registry. The Offender Watch Program is an internet based, searchable database containing public information, which enables the search for the presence of registered sex offenders and predators in proximity to their homes, place of work, schools and day cares all located in Santa Barbara County. This information is being provided to the citizens in a form they can easily use at any time day or night via the nations leading sex offender registration and notification solution, Offender Watch.

Citizens may enter any address of interest to them, and see a map and listing of offenders within one mile of that address. Then, they may register the address to be notified via email, alerting them if an offender or predator should register an address within one mile of their registered address. Citizens may also confidentially register as many addresses as they like, at no cost to them.

The purpose of the program is to lessen the anxiety of citizens by proactively alerting them should an offender or predator move within proximity to them, and to enhance the security and safety of Santa Barbara County citizens. The program also enables law enforcement to verify that offender addresses do not violate any safety buffers that may be implemented around protected institutions in the County, such as schools, day care facilities and churches. In addition, this program will assist us in creating the three sections for the various types of offenders, as this is a requirement of the Adam Walsh Act that law enforcement will have to comply with in the coming year.

Citizens can access the Offender Watch registry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by going to the Sheriff’s Department web-site www.sbsheriff.org and clicking on the Offender Watch link, or by visiting any of the local Santa Barbara County law enforcement agency web-sites and clicking on the Offender watch link.

This program is funded for all of the local police agencies in Santa Barbara County, and was paid for by a State Grant that came from OES – Office of the Governor, SAFE Team 290 Enforcement.

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