Sex-Offender Alerts To Be Sent By Phone

[The Straight Story]

Sex-Offender Alerts To Be Sent By Phone
Organization Provides Service To Sheriff's Office

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Residents in one southwest Florida county will get a phone call when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.

Starting Sunday, Lee County authorities will send the prerecorded calls over land lines within a quarter-mile radius. The messages are similar to those already sent about missing children or Alzheimer's patients.

Sgt. Tracy Booth said the phone calls will back up information already available on the sheriff's office Web site or by e-mail alerts. The phone recording also states that the information should not be used to harass anyone.

The Fort Lauderdale-based organization A Child Is Missing is providing the phone service to the sheriff's office.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/18615215/detail.html#-

[RB TexLa]

1. How excatly would Lee County authorities know the phone numbers?

My cities, county and parish don't know my numbers. Neither in Louisiana or in Texas.

[MadHound]

2. Because they work hand in glove with the local phone company.

It's always been that way, it will always be that way.

[RB TexLa]

3. Phone numbers don't have to be listed or published.

[MadHound]

5. No they don't

However if a government entity wants your phone number, they can get it easily enough. A simple call to the local phone company does the trick.

[RB TexLa]

7. But they don't have to, they can respect people's privacy, there are some decent human beings left

in the world.

[NeedleCast]

4. Wow, this is really getting out of control

[customerserviceguy]

6. Which one

phone calls or sex offenders?

[4 t 4]

8. Our country really needs

to classify sex offenders especially now if there to do this. There is a huge difference between 2 people having consensual sex when one is underage and someone who hurts a child yet their considered the same, shameful.

[Hugabear]

9. Hell, there's a lot more than just that.

The term "sex offender" can apply to someone who gets busted taking a piss in an alleyway.

[chrisa]

11. No Offense, but...

I don't really see a difference between a 30 year old man having sex with a 10 year old girl, and him attacking her from the street randomly. Even a 15 year old. That's just weird. They can get somebody their own age, and not somebody to fullfill their crazy fetishes.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. What about an 18 year old and a 17 year old?

What about the truly absurd situation where two 15 or 16 year olds are each prosecuted for raping the other (it has happened)?

[chrisa]

14. Obviously not, but...

How often does that happen? Most pedophiles raped somebody who was 13 years old or younger. Most are over 30, and are power freaks. Nasty.

I have no problem with teens having sex with each other. The ick factor comes into play when the male is over 20, though, and she's still in High School.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. I honestly don't know, but I suspect it's a non-trivial fraction of sex offence cases.

I suspect that a large majority of techical violations of laws that would get someone placed on sex offenders registers are teens having consensual sex, but relatively few of them actually get prosecuted, because of common sense.

I have no idea what fraction of people who actually end up on them have done something significantly bad.

[customerserviceguy]

12. Not sure if they do it everywhere

but I'm familiar with a level system, where the guy who got caught pissing on a tree is a level one, whereas the "jump out of the bushes" rapist is likely to be a level three, and that's the ones that merit the highest notifications.

There are laws that differentiate between the senior who has sex with the freshman, and the violent exploiter of children, too.

[elocs]

10. What to do with sex offenders is a real dilemma.

True sex offenders have an incredibly high recidivism rate after being released from prison with some even re-offending as soon a they are released and the number of times they re-offend is undoubtedly far underreported. These are especially the people who need to be separated from society for the protection of society. On the other hand, any sex offender who might want to reform finds that all sex offenders will tend to be hounded from one after another city. The placing of offenders who are clearly still dangerous into a mental institution after the prison term does seem appropriate.

I say "true" sex offenders because they all seem to get lumped together even if it is only a Romeo and Juliet affair. A 20 year old male and a 17 year old female could well have met in high school, but given the difference in age the guy could find himself arrested as a sex offender.