By Debbie Williams Reporter
Published: Thu, March 27, 2008 - 3:06 pm
Debbie Williams
Nicole Coxwell is the only person in her department at the Sheriff's office. "I work in the sexual offender/predator unit." With almost six hundred sexual offenders and predators in Escambia County Florida, she needs all the help she can get. "The public plays a very big in my daily investigations on the offenders and predators so anything we can do to help them is always a plus."
A new tool introduced by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is giving the public more control of tracking offenders. "We're using technology to the highest benefit we can't think of another way to use the technology to help get the word out," says Special Agent Jay Etheridge.
The new program does two things. It will send e-mail alerts when an offender or predator moves into your neighborhood and it will track known offenders when they change addresses."
"Citizens can go to our website or they can also access local law enforcement website, type in their address, work address, children's daycare and get automatic alert notification whenever an offender or predator moves into whatever designated radius."
There's around 47 thousand sex offenders and predators in the state of Florida.
"We can't be out there everyday knocking on doors everyday to the citizens to let them know when an offender or predator has moved into their area," says Etheridge. The new alert system allows more people to watch where offenders are living and when they move.
11 other states have similar programs. Public searches of Florida sex offenders generates about half a million hits a month on FDLE's website.
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well if we did not let them out of jail we would not have to look after them, i bet if you let the faimly members of victems look after them we would not have the problem or the finincal burden.