By Andrew Nash - The Morning Sun - Pittsburg, Kansas
You can't pick your neighbors, but perhaps you can know a little bit more about the ones that are registered offenders.
Crawford County Sheriff Dan Peak announced a new web site that will allow residents in the county to identify if any registered offenders live or move within a certain radius of their home.
The site, which will go live later this month, will identify which registered offenders live nearby. That includes those who must register for sex, violent or certain drug offenses.
"Some don't meet the parameters for public record, but there are about 100 that we have on our roll," Peak said. "They have to notify our contact in the office when they move into or out of the county, or if they change their address."
The new site, www.sheriffalerts.com/ks/crawford, will allow people to sign up for email alerts whenever a registered offender moves into an up-to-two-mile radius.
"Right now, the only thing you can do is search for offenders. As soon as it goes live in a couple weeks, you can register your email and you're good to go for alerts," Peak said.
The site, run through OffenderWatch, goes beyond just a map and alerts. The site also includes a number of safety tips that will help.
Among the tips are some frequently asked questions. Notably, it addresses the questions of whether these offenders will commit another crime (Not necessarily, but it's important to be aware of higher risks) and what to tell children about these known offenders (Don't accept a ride, don't go into their home or yard, and tell someone if they offer toys, money or gifts).
The tips also include things to know, behavior to watch, tips on talking to children, and warning signs, as well as a number of community awareness fliers.
"First, this is a great public service tool. As the number of offenders rise, we thoguht it'd be great to have this service available to the public," Peak said. "There are other tools, through the KBI, but they're tough to navigate around. This is a user-friendly program. It's well worth the expense for our department to get this out there."
There will be a little bit of a delay, as the department will go through user training early next week. Peak said the site should be operational the week after that, and will be live no later than Jan. 24.
The site will also be linked to the Crawford County Sheriff's Office site on Facebook, as well as through www.crsoks.org.